Scenic Byways, Bison and Wild Bill

Towering limestone cliffs and rushing mountain streams was our focus this past Saturday when we headed northwest of Rapid City to the start of the Spearfish Scenic Byway. I discovered this 19-mile stretch of beautiful scenery while researching the area. There were a handful of waterfalls and a couple of trails we wanted to explore, as well as have lunch at the Spearfish Canyon Lodge, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Our drive started out exactly as I had imagined. After a few miles of beautiful scenery we stopped to look at the Bridal Veil Falls which was easily viewed from the roadside. Then we continued a bit further to our first hike — the Devil’s Bathtub Trail. After parking, putting on our hiking shoes, and pulling up the map on Alltrails App we headed out. It was a great experience from the first step.

We had to cross the creek at least a dozen times, trying to balance on rocks and logs to keep our shoes dry. We ending up spending two hours on the trail, enjoying every aspect and allowing Dale to take video. It got a little tricky near the end when we had to walk on narrow ledges and scramble up a couple of large rocks. It was so good!

After the hike we got back in the car and continued south, but not for very long. A highway patrol passed us in the oncoming lane, came to a screeching halt, turned around and came back to let us know that there had just been a rockfall that covered the road ahead. We had to turn around. Dang!

Since it was lunchtime we decided to grab lunch in Spearfish and rethink our day. While enjoying our McDonald’s burgers, we searched the local social media pages to get an update — maybe the rocks were gone and we could continue our drive. However, we found the below image of the rock fall. We agreed that it looked like a time consuming clean up job so we decided to head back toward Deadwood and visit a couple things we missed during our visit the day before.

Tatanka Story of Bison

Tatanka Story of Bison is located just outside of Deadwood. We were unsure whether it was worth the entrance fee, but we took a chance and stopped to check it out. It was good, not amazing, but good.

The word “tatanka” is the Lakota word for buffalo. Apparently Kevin Costner was so deeply moved by the lives of the native Americans during the filming of “Dances With Wolves,” (an Oscar-winning movie filmed in western South Dakota) that he wanted to bring the experience to the public by building a large resort. He commissioned an artist to make large bronze figures depicting a buffalo hunt to go in front of the hotel, but his dreams never became a reality. Instead, he built this site to display the sculptures and to tell the story of the Lakota people.

Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood

Mount Moriah Cemetery is the burial place of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and a few other notable folks. It was established in the 1880s, but Hickok, who was shot in 1861 during a card game, was moved from Deadwood’s current cemetery to Moriah. It is said that his body weighed more than 400 lb because calcium carbonate from the soil had petrified his body. Joseph McLintock, who wrote a detailed description of the reinternment, used a cane to tap the body, face, and head, finding no soft tissue anywhere.

When he was shot, Hickok was playing five-card stud or five-card draw. He was holding two pairs: black aces and black eights as his “up cards”, which has since become widely known as the “dead man’s hand”.

There are Jewish and Chinese sections as well as two Potter’s Fields.

By the time we finished walking every inch of the cemetery we were ready for a cool treat, so we stopped by the DQ in Sturgis for a Blizzard, then headed home. I have to admit, this was our third Blizzard on this trip!

On a side note: here is short video showing our area of South Dakota and the location of the Spearfish Scenic Drive. It’s a bit noisy in the background because we were in a coffee shop when I recorded it.