Close Encounters of the Third Kind!

We left the natural beauty of Yellowstone and headed out on the next leg of our adventure (the map even changed on the website!). We enjoyed our stay and the many interesting places we visited including our horseback ride and fishing in Lake Yellowstone. It is truly a place of amazing things that must be seen first hand.  On our horseback ride, one of our guides said that "97 percent of Yellowstone is back country" and we saw only a small part of this beautiful place. We set out of camp passing the famous fishing bridge and headed out the East Entrance of Yellowstone. We drove into Cody Wyoming and stopped at the Old Trail Town... a replica of an old western town, the structures were originals moved here from all over the area. Old photos hung on the wall, The Hole in the Wall Gang walked thru these doors.  Jeremiah Johnson was buried there... we got Ryan the movie near Boulder on our way south and we have been quoting ever since. "you skin that one pilgrim and I'll git you another" "watch yer top notch... watch yourn."  It was a cool stop in a hot little town. We then stopped at the famed Irma hotel in downtown (one main street) Cody, WY.  Excellent stop and bought Alexis an awesome pink cowgirl hat. We then drove to Devil's Tower in the upper north Eastern corner of Wyoming. An amazing tower of rock that conjures up the thought of the theme sounds of the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." It looks like a place that you could see a UFO.  We ate lunch and worked on our junior ranger workbooks before  heading southeast towards Custer, South Dekota in the middle of the Black hills.
We searched for a campground and read many reviews... We finally settled on a place called The Broken Arrow Campground.  As it turns out this is one of the best in the area and we are very pleased with our choice.  It is a campground for people and horses.  You can hear the horses whinnying in the background as you fall fast asleep, such a nice sound.  Horse folk are super nice, they were fighting over whose horse they got to put Lexi on.  She got to sit bareback on one and ride western saddle on another (photos on website).  She could not stop smiling!
Yesterday we toured Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore, and Wind Cave.  We were actually disappointed at how touristy Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore were.  You were nickel and dimed at every turn when all we wanted to do was stare in awe at our countries beautiful monuments.  The granite rock sculptures were very impressive and the stories behind them even more so.
Wind Cave National Park was our last stop late in the day.  We caught the last tour of the caves and were the last four souls into and out of the caves.  We lagged behind in several places and got some great photos.  At one point, the Ranger guide shut off the lights in the cave so we could see how the 1st 16 year old boy who discovered the caves saw it.  He had entered the cave thru a 16" hole with only a candle and a ball of string.  When the lights went out, it was so dark you could not even see the hand in front of your face.  I grabbed what I thought was Ryan to hold him, and when the lights went back on, I actually had Alexis!  There are 84 miles of mapped caves at Wind Cave, with an unknown amount still being explored.  It is the 5th largest cave system in the world.  No wonder you need a REALLY big ball of string!