Hot Springs

14^th July

Everyone in the campsite had had a bad night.  To begin with it was too hot to sleep; then the wind blew up, which caused issues for those in tents; then a loud clap of thunder overhead and the heavens opened, along with lightening etc.  The morning temperature was almost a shock after yesterday’s heat wave; it was a cool 75F! The two university students moved out of their tent into their car during the night.

We said our goodbyes to everyone and then set off for Hot Springs, travelling through some more areas of Badland Nat Park.  When we got to Hot Springs Alison got in the car and the brake pedal went straight to the floor – the brake fluid reservoir was empty!  We replaced the brake fluid but would need a visit to a garage to get the air bled as they were still very spongy

15^th July Mammoth Dig and Wind Cave NP

The garage checked out and bled the brakes in the morning, although why the reservoir should be empty was a mystery. . We found out later that the offside front wheel had got so hot that it had boiled the brake fluid. (More expense)

 

We then visited the Mammoth Dig Site.  This site was discovered when an area that was to be developed for housing had a digger unearth a Mammoth Tusk.  Excavations since then have identified up to 60 individual Mammoths along with other animals from that period. 


The belief is that this was a water-filled sink hole that the odd animal slipped into and could not get out of over a period of 300-700 years.There are several programmes were you can come and help with the “digging”.  We thought they may be volunteers but apparently they pay to come here to work.

In the afternoon we visited Wind Cave National Park and went on their Fairgrounds Tour.  This took us into the underground tunnels to see formations called “Boxwork” which is very unusual and we hadn’t seen this before. 
Wind Cave is considered the longest systems of underground tunnels in the USA measuring over 140 miles of known tunnels so far.

16^th July Cold Brook Recreation Area

We had a quiet morning and then took sandwiches down to Cold Brook Rec area and spent the afternoon on the lake with the kayak.  Paul caught a couple of fish but they were too small to eat.  We could see the ‘big ones’ swimming through the clear water but they just did want to get caught!

17^th July Cheyenne Again

We spent 6 hours driving back down to Cheyenne in Wyoming to stay with Bev and Dave for the Cheyenne Rodeo ‘Frontier Days’ which is the biggest in the country. More on this in the next blog.