Colorado Cruiser: Devil's Tower and Little Bighorn Battleground

Day 4 - Deadwood WY to Billings MT

Yesterday was a very long day. We rode 7 great roads and visited 2 iconic landmarks. It was a great day, but it left me exhausted.

Today we are visiting 2 National Monuments, but we will be riding nearly 400 miles across Montana and that will wear us out even more, especially if the temperatures climb very high.

Nan opted to skip breakfast and catch an extra 40 minutes of sleep. I went to breakfast early so she could sleep peacefully, then I!!! could help pack while everyone else was eating. But when I finished my breakfast, I found Nan relaxed in the room, showered, dressed, and the whole place packed up. She must have gotten up as soon as I left. She's amazing.

We loaded the highlander and bike about the same time everyone else came out from breakfast at 8:00.

We were loosing one couple today. Brian and Ellen are heading back to Denver so Ellen can fly home to make some flower arrangements or something. Then Brian will find his own way back to Phoenix over the following couple of days. It's always sad to me when these trips end, and loosing someone in the middle like this reminds me that we're nearing the end. I DON'T WANT THE FUN TO STOP!!!!

Spearfish Canyon

Our first target for the day was to ride Spearfish canyon. Angela, one of the other wives, was going to ride with Nan today. They didn't really want to do the canyon, so they headed straight to Spearfish. We headed South (away from our eventual destination of the day) and rode down to the entrance to the canyon. We got stuck behind a camper truck who also turned up Spearfish Canyon Road. I was just groaning about how slow we'd have to ride with that truck leading us, when he pulled off to the side and waved us around. There are some nice people out here. I just hope we're some of them sometimes.

We started up the road and it became twisty very quick. It followed the stream' path, so the road wound around and occasionally had to climb up the canyon wall a bit to avoid some obstacle. In short, it was a great ride.

It was also a cold ride. Despite being July, the cold air settles into these canyons, and the evaporative effect of the stream adds to it. It was probably mid to low 60s, and with wind chill, it was probably in the 50s. But it felt great to me.

We chatted on the CB like we always do. Sometimes its like a day long joke and gab session. And of course, we often talk at the same time making nothing understandable and we even laugh about that.

The sun slowly rose and began to cast light on the wall of the canyon and the tops of the trees. Steam rose from the stream, and the colors just exploded with the combination of reds, greens, and blues. Add to that the smell of damp pine needles and crisp cold air and you have an experience that's hard to forget. It was a special ride.

Spearfish

But all roads and ride have to end some time. We rode out the North end of the canyon into the town of Spearfish. Behind us was the Black Hills, and we were leaving them for the last time of this trip. Another very sad moment.

We gassed up and tried to find Angela and Nannette, but it turns out that Spearfish is allot bigger than any of us thought. So when we told them to meet us at the Conoco gas station, they got frustrated after the 3rd one that we weren't at and we decided just to all head for Devil's tower and meet up there.

We had to get on I-90 for a about 10 miles, but it wasn't too bad. We were back off pretty quick and out into more wide open country but still very scenic..

Devil's Tower

We drove the nice back road.s of Wyoming to Devil's tower. We came up over a hill and **POOFF** there it was. We turned off the highway toward the entrance and pulled over for pictures. The sky was clear with just a few puffy clouds here and there. Temps were still in the 70s, and we heard Nannette and Angela on the CB getting close.

The line to enter the park was pretty short, only 4 cars ahead of us. We all waved our National Parks passes and rode in. Then we followed the road around to the back to look for parking. It was pretty crowded but we managed to find 3 spots. We put the bikes in 2 of them, then kind of hogged the 3rd spot with the Can-Am spyder until Angela got there and could park in it.

We went to the visitor's center and the bathrooms before we climbed to the base of the tower. It wasn't very far, and the sun was almost right on top of the tower so we couldn't get a good picture, but it was nice to sit up there in the shade and chat some more.

Nan and Karen walked much further up, but the rest of us just sat in the shade and enjoyed the cool breeze. The temperature was very nice, but if the sun was beating on you it felt like 100 degrees to me, so shade was great.

After 10 minutes the mental timers on John and Drew dinged, and it was time to get back on the road.

We walked back to the bikes to load up. Nannette asked me to program the GPS in the highlander for our next destination, but for the life of me, I couldn't get it to find Little Bighorn National Monument. It'd put in little and it would stop allowing me to input and just show 3 places that started with little. I couldn't put in the address because it didn't recognize the town, so eventually I zoomed the map out, clicked around till I found the rough location in Montana, then zoomed and scrolled till I found the place, set a marker and told it to take them there. What a pain. And by this time, the other bikes are loaded up and left.

I dash to the bike and rapidly put on jacket and helmet then rode off. I forgot to hook up me music, didn't buckle my helmet, didn't zip my jacket, and didn't have my gloves on. I had to do them all on the road as I tried to catch up with the others. It took about 10 minutes of hard riding to catch them.

Montana

We could have ridden on the freeway from Devil's Tower to Little Bighorn, but we try to avoid the freeway if we can, so we rode back a ways until we could catch a highway to take us North. That highway was under construction and we wound up riding on hard packed dirt and gravel for 5 miles behind a pace car. It was hot and a bit dusty, but we all made it without incident.

After the construction it was 100 miles of straight, flat riding with the temperature continuing to increase. By the time we reached a town we could gas up in, it was 89 degrees and we were all nearly out of gas. We crowded around the few pumps at the gas station, then started searching our phones for somewhere to eat.

Lunch - No name town, Montana

A gas station attendant told us the only places to eat were the sub shop in the gas station, or the bowling alley. After a scouting trip by the women we opted for the sub shop.

We parked the bikes under some big trees for shade, then stood around eating our subs, chips, and sodas with a cool breeze blowing around us. It was much nicer and better food that I'd expected. Some other bikes parked there with us to do the same thing and we all got to talking about our motorcycles and destinations.

A long hot ride

With our tanks and tummies full, we headed out toward Little Bighorn. It was another 140 miles of straight flat riding, but this time with some pretty heavy crosswinds thrown in.

The ladies were far behind us, and from what we could tell, they were having a great time in the air conditioned car, telling stories about us men (the swear they weren't) and laughing....allot.

The 5 of us men on the bikes weren't nearly as talkative this afternoon. We passed along road hazards, road conditions, helped with passing vehicles, and noted the occasional cloud that would fail to cast shade on us. But the miles melted away.

A few times we climbed small hills and felt a cool breeze at the top, but we always had to descend the other side, and the relentless sun would beat us up again.

**NOTE** This is a story from my (Clay's) point of view. I've lived in Colorado for 13 years now, and I feel overheated when the temperature reaches 90. I don't think the other 4 men from Arizona even noticed the temperature. But I find myself drenched in sweat through most of the ride.**End Rant**

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

After a gruelling ride, we turned off the highway into the Little Bighorn Battlefield. I guess it used to be Custer Battlefield, but was renamed to acknowledge that 2 sides found on the battle, and Custer wasn't really the big hero that history would have you believe.

We began by sitting on some chars near the Visitor's Center and listening as Rob explained some of the circumstances around the battle, and pointed out the various positions that each group took. It's too long to explain here, but it was very interesting.

Then we walked up to the marker at the top of the ridge where the battle took place. All across the fields around the hill you can see white marble markers. Each notes a place where one of Custer's men was later found. They were spread out all over the place. There were a few clusters of markers, and some were in scattered lines, but it was clearly a route with the men just fleeing as fast as they could and trying desperately to get away.

We read the various placards that described more about how those that followed, buried the bodies, then moved, then excavated even more. It looked like there have been at least 5 different attempts to fully map the site, with the last being 2002 when a wild fire burned off all the ground cover and let the archaeologists dig without disturbing much.

We also walked over to an earthen circle where a monument to the fallen Sioux and Lacota were memorialized. It was a very pretty memorial and talked about the Native American's search for peace throughout the early years of the country.

We eventually gathered back by the bikes and decided to take a short ride down the road to see what else there was. The women grudgingly put on their gear and hopped on the bikes. We rode out and you could instantly see that there were far more bodies spread out than I'd originally thought. They were spread over more than a mile.

As we were coming back, I stopped by a small sign to read it, and it talked about the brown marker stones, and how those brown stones marked the location of a fallen Indian. I hadn't noticed any brown markers, so I looked around and suddenly I could see them all over the place. The white stones were very obvious, but the brown ones sort of blended in. I'm not sure if that was a metaphor for something, but it a bit disturbing to my soul that I hadn't noticed them before.

The final push to the hotel

Once we got back to the parking lot it was like someone yelled "ABANDON SHIP" as the women scrambled off the bikes, stowed their gear, and climbed back into the highlander. It was a mad dash for leather seats and AC.

We men just sat there on the bikes and tried to figure out what happened. Then we turned the bikes toward the nearby town and gas. Our first gas station turned out to be closed, so we hopped on the freeway and hoped we would find gas nearby. There was. About 12 miles down the road we stopped to gas up.

I was flabbergasted when I finished gassing, and punched the numbers into my cell phone. For this last 150 miles, I had gotten 28 miles per gallon. That is the worst gas mileage I've ever had on the Goldwing. Usually I get 38 in the city and 45 to 48 on the highway. But 28???

So when we got back on the freeway, I set my cruise control for 75 and just relaxed. The other bikes quickly left me well behind, but I just poked along and enjoyed the cooling air as the temperature finally began to drop.

It was only 50 miles to the hotel, and I arrived just a few minutes after the others. We all checked in, then went to a local restaurant recommended by the desk clerk. We shared more stories and enjoyed some really good food.

Spearfish Canyon