We
left Yellowstone via the east entrance, and crossed a good chunk of Wyoming
in the dark. We crossed the Big Horn Mountains and found a place to sleep
before heading over to the Black Hills, where we thought about unpacking the
bikes, but decided to go tour Wind Cave instead.
While getting unlost on a dirt road, we found more bison, including a bull that was in the road and not moving, and later, some prairie dogs.
Wind
Cave is barometric, meaning if the air pressure is high outside, wind rushes
into the cave, and if it's low, wind rushes out of the cave. The tour guide,
a skinny long haired guy with a great stage presence, told us stories on how
the cave was discovered, and of the first tour guide, Alvin, who managed to
leave an entire tour group in the cave by accident for several hours - in
the dark.This cave has a good percentage of the world's boxwork formations,
and also rooms of flat-roofed chert.
The western loop over, we headed east towards home, listening to Niven's "Crashlander" and Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" and discussing the activities of black holes as the pale scrub faded to golden grasslands. Scott discovered Rita had never had to stop at Wall Drug, and insisted she had to see it. It was worse then the Dells. Grasslands faded to fields of corn, short due to this years rainless July, and over the Mississippi to home.
End of another trip. Hope you enjoyed the ride.