WIND CAVE trip
June 6-12 2021
PART 4
US 85 splits from US 26 in Torrington, Wyo., and forms a "Kentucky loop" over US 26. This setup was built in the 2010s, but I can't figure out why it was built.
North on NE 29.
NE 29 bounces along the hills!
A very strenuous trail at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. The monument was not named after Joe Agate, the bully in Peanuts who cheated Rerun out of his antique marbles.
The formations here are fossil beds - real fossil beds! It's not like in grade school when a kid found a pebble in the sandbox and thought it was a fossil.
Another spot where I took a wild guess where it was on Google Street View and found it right away. This is north on NE 29 about 10 miles south of Harrison, Neb.
NE 29 uses Main Street in Harrison.
NE 29 ends at US 20 in Harrison. Main Street continues ahead as a gray road on my road atlas, which eventually becomes unpaved.
Probably US 20 in the Fort Robinson area.
NE 2/71 becomes SD 71 as we enter South Dakota!
SD 71 in Ardmore, S.D.
SD 71 and a rail line cross a creek.
Probably still SD 71.
US 18/385 uses Chicago Street in Hot Springs, S.D.
Probably US 385 or SD 87.
A bison looms at far right.
The Tim Tent marauds into Wind Cave National Park! This is where there was a big hailstorm that spoiled all my belongings. Ruined 'em all up, it did.
I'm not sure here, but this is likely on the way to Jewel Cave, which would have probably involved US 385 and 16.
Probably US 16 near Jewel Cave.
Jewel Cave was not named after singer Jewel. I'll never forget the time someone stuck bubble gum on a Jewel poster at NKU. It has been widely speculated that Jewel can blow a bodacious bubble because of her crooked chompers, but a nice film at the Jewel Cave visitor center disclosed that the cave can bubble in the form of rare hydromagnesite balloons.
US 16 in Custer, S.D. This is part of the region that the U.S. government forced indigenous people to cede in 1877.
US 16/385 in Custer.
North on US 385 with the Crazy Horse Memorial at center right.
East on SD 244.