Day Two: Friday, June 16, 2017
We needed to be on the road to Rapid City fairly early on a Friday morning, but we tend to wake up with the birdies and had time to take fun pictures before leaving the campsite. These are our likenesses in LEGO Minifigure form and they usually travel with us for the fun photo ops. I’m the one in the middle.😂 We didn’t have time to stop for photos along the way, but Joey snapped a few of the views as we drove.
We spent much of our day touring the South Dakota School of Mines, which appeared to be a great small school. The engineering department looked a lot like the garages of my dad and brothers, only much, much cleaner, so that was amusing. Overall, it was a good visit, but not what Joey had in mind. After a quick photo with the mascot to commemorate our visit, we started our journey toward Cheyenne, Wyoming.
It had been a long, long time since I had been on the lonely roads between Edgemont, South Dakota and Lusk, Wyoming. I was never impressed with the drive as a teenager because I thought it was always brown and boring, but somehow the route had improved with age. It might have been the green grass, or perhaps it was because once we left South Dakota, it started to really feel like we were going on an adventure!
Wyoming’s scenery is so different than South Dakota’s. They have huge, permanent, wooden snow fences that make you wonder just how bad the snow gets in winter. The terrain is rolling plains covered in grasslands, interrupted by these random buttes. Mix in some dramatic clouds, the beginnings of golden hour, and you have a recipe for a gorgeous drive!
There are no services for miles around and barely any traffic. It’s not an area you want to drive into on a partial tank of gas, but at least they post signs to warn you! Lusk is just a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, so I’m not sure what amenities one might find there, besides a gas station and cell phone service. We had filled up in Edgemont so upon reaching the milestone of Lusk, we continued on through the grasslands toward the interstate.
I don’t remember why I didn’t reserve a hotel room in advance, but I called to make a reservation after we made it to the interstate. Wherever I called first was full, but they owned other properties and put me down for the last room available at the Cheyenne Super 8. It was pretty nice, as far as Super 8s go, featuring gorgeous black and white photography above the beds. It was late when we arrived, which was why we had not planned on camping. That and the Cheyenne area doesn’t seem to have a lot of campground options unless you want to wander further west, which I did not.
It’s probably obvious that I didn’t do a lot of research or advanced planning on our first few road trips. I would figure out how many miles were between places we wanted to visit so I would know where to look for campgrounds, but for the most part, we winged it and it usually worked out alright. I always carry maps and back then, I would study them at night to decide the next day’s route.
On this trip, I had to decide if I would go through the Denver area to get on I70, or if I would drive through Rocky Mountain National Park over Trail Ridge Road to avoid Denver, and then get on I70. Both seemed equally scary to me; the former would be so much traffic and the latter included mountain driving. Since the kids had never visited Rocky Mountain National Park, I decided that would be the best way to go. With that decision made, we turned out the lights.
Please subscribe to read about our adventures on Day Three. We’ll spend the day in Colorado!