it's not easy getting there, but the effort can be worth it to see some of the scenery and ride some of the roads in northeast Wyoming and western South Dakota. We just finished a 4 day ride. Our time was limited due to my brother not having much time off available.

The Bighorn mountains east of Yellowstone were a welcome site after crossing the high desert from Lander to Worland. The Cloud Peak Skyway is a classic high mountain pass road. It's a nice diversion prior to about 70 more miles of high desert on the way to Devil's Tower.

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The Black Hills of South Dakota are amazing. Great scenery, history, and windy roads. Spearfish Canyon to Deadwood was a treat. Deadwood is interesting. It is the only place where casino gambling is legal outside of Nevada, Atlantic City, Indian reservations, and riverboats. The history is interesting, but everything else has turned pretty touristy.

From Deadwood, we headed south to Mt Rushmore. This was the ultimate destination, and it did not disappoint. Huge crowds, but they do a good job of managing traffic and accommodating everyone. The story of how it was created is well captured in the museum and theater. It was awe inspiring.

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Leaving Mt Rushmore, we continued south on a road that looked like a scribble on the map. It had loops in it, which I couldn't understand until we experienced them, a 270 degree switchback that bridged over itself. The road went through Custer State Park, and on to Hot Springs. Just a beautiful, fun to ride 100 mile stretch of road. There are lots of things to see and to such as caves, lookout points, lakes, etc. But we wanted to make it to Casper, so Mt Rushmore was our only stop. No sightings of Rocky Raccoon, or McGill/Lil/Nancy.

After Hot Springs, it was back to grasslands and high desert. We hit a huge thunder cell 10 miles east of Casper. The rain and wind was so heavy, we pulled off the freeway and stopped for 20 minutes. A lot of other cars stopped too. Lightning was all around us, the kind you see, hear, and feel at the same time. Very scary, but we got through.