Day 16 – July 19, Monday
Today, we are traveling from Spearfish, SD to Alliance, NE. We left Spearfish traveling on the scenic byway. Otis a very pretty stretch of road. We did cross back into Wyoming for just a little bit. At Custor, we turned south toward Hot Springs. In Hot Springs, we stopped at the Mammoth Site. It is where they are digging up old mammoth bones. They have a short film you watch first which explains why the mammoth bones are in this spot. After watching the film, you enter the room where they are actually still working digging up the old bones. Some bones they have left where they were found. Other bones have been removed so they could be studied. It was very interesting. After looking at the e hi it, Jay and I made our sandwiches and had lunch.
We left Hot Springs and drove to Ardmore SD and then crossed into Nebraska. Our next stop was Toadstool Geologic Park. We were supposed to turn onto Toadstool Road, but instead we turned onto a one lane gravel road that ran through pastures. At one point we came to a cattle gate that said we were entering private property. We kept going, we must have driven 10 miles on this gravel road before we came to Toadstool Road. We followed it until the turnoff to Toadstool Geologic Park. It contains a badlands landscape. It is named after its unusual rock formations, some resemble toadstools. You have to hike to actually see the unusual rock formations. Since the temperature was 98 F, we decided not to take the hike. So this off road journey proved a bust for us. We were able to follow Toadstool Road back to the main road.
On the way to our next stop, we were driving along a Abe’s road that was also paved with gravel. Two cars went by really fast and kicked up some gravel, one of which cracked my windshield. The crack is only about an inch long, so I think it will be Ok to complete our journey.
Our next stop was Carhenge. This is a takeoff of Stonehenguin England, only it is made with cars. It was an interesting stop. Our last stop was our motel in Alliance, NE.
