Moving on to South Dakota

On Monday morning, July 9, we struck out heading northeast from Devil’s Tower on our way to South Dakota. I took this shot of a ranch being irrigated soon after we left.

It was lush and beautiful. I have been truly impressed with the beauty of the back country in Wyoming. It’s not at all like what you see speeding through the state on Highway 80, my usual auto route.

After riding for about 31 miles, we reached the South Dakota border. Here are a bunch of us under the welcome sign. That’s me on the left.

The first town of any size we reached in South Dakota was Belle Fourche. About 10 miles further on, we came to Spearfish. It was an interesting town that has preserved a lot of the old buildings in its downtown core, including an opera house. Here’s a shot of part of the downtown.

A couple of miles beyond Spearfish, we turned in to Spearfish Canyon. We rode for many miles in the canyon and it was gorgeous. Here’s a shot of the rimrock above the greenery on the canyon floor.

Soon, we began to see evidence of the heavy influence Homestake Mining has had in the area. Here’s a Homestake power plant.

Here’s the lobby of a lodge in the small mountain town of Savoy.

The sign outside showed the lodge was also owned by Homestake.

When I reached Lead, pronounced as in to lead a horse to water, a local told me that the beautiful 1940 era high school that we slept in had also been heavily supported by Homestake.

Our next ride will be from Lead to Custer.