The Road to Bozeman: Day 3

Our plan for this morning was to get up at 5:00 and watch the sunrise. This was great in theory, difficult in practice. Surprisingly, four of us did manage to get up at 5:00 for the sunrise; the only problem was that the sun had already risen at that point. It’s crazy to think that the sun rises at 4:45 in the morning in some places in the world. Anyways, we were already up, so we decided to do some exploring. This led to an absolutely amazing morning hike. The terrain literally looked like something from Mars, and as the sun continued to rise it created beautiful contrasts on the rock formations. We went off of the trail a little bit and actually saw some Big Horned Sheep, which there are only 100 of total in the 240,000 acre park. Not being Big Horned Sheep ourselves made it hard to climb back up to the established trail, but we were able to make it back to the camp unscathed. After packing up the car, we went on a hike as an entire group, which brought us to a view overlooking a massive, glacier formed valley. Despite seeing several signs warning hikers of rattlesnakes, we saw none. Most of the team rejoiced in this, others did not.

After leaving Badlands, we headed out towards Mt. Rushmore, which was only about 45 minutes west of the park. On the way, we stopped at a town so small that Main St. consisted solely of a Post office and a general store called The Caputa Store. But after going into the general store for lunch, we soon became aware that stopping at this particular store may have been the best decision we made all day. Apart from having great burgers, and even better chili, the owner of the store was one of the most interesting people we have met so far on the trip. Ryan Olson is a rancher, who owns 4,600 acres, and has recently purchased the general store. He told us about how the property has been in his family for well over a hundred years, how the movie Dances with Wolves was filmed on his property, and how the snow storm from last October killed $350,000 worth of his cattle. Learning about his drive and determination through the stories he told was truly inspiring and gave us some legitimate insights on what it takes to own your own business, especially in the West. After sending us on our way with full stomachs and a new understanding of western living, we set out for Mt. Rushmore. Let’s just say, that the mountain is something everyone should see once, but nobody should have to see again. This most exciting part of the visit was H.B. saying he had heard that there may be a small conference room in the eye of George Washington. Needless to say, we paid our respects and then quickly went on our way.

Next we took a brief detour to Devil’s Tower, which is a huge piec\e of granite stone ascending straight up in the air with no support on any side. It was incredibly impressive to look at, but wasn’t worth the 10 bucks we would have needed to give in order to actually enter the monument. That being said, we turned around and are now on our way to Bozeman. Tam and Nedley are behind the wheel tonight and we should be pulling into Bozeman at around 3:00 AM. We are all looking forward to sleeping in a real bed tonight. Tomorrow is Yellowstone, so it is important for us to get some good sleep! Tomorrow will bring another update!

- Evan