July 9, Decisions

I woke up bright and early. Too early. Nothing was open and I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to enter Scottsbluff without paying. So I drove around for an hour to pass the time.
Once at Scottsbluff I did the 1.6mile hike up and it was just beautiful. Maybe the paved path and cell phone tour helped.

I love to hike but if you think about it its rather uneventful. You work hard to climb, reach the summit, look around, rest, and then just head down. It’s strange, but I think I enjoy the up part.

The man at the national park office was great. Am beginning to realize I really like National Park employees. So there uniforms aren’t the best, but for the most part they are so damn helpful.

After Scottsbluff I paid the four dollars to see Nebraska’s only lighthouse. It’s so cute. It’s on this huge lake hidden between hills like all of Nebraska’s lakes. Did you know all of Nebraska’s lakes are manmade? Okay smarty, did you know they were made to be used for irrigation? If these questions are too easy than riddle me this: Why do you leave Colorado to go fishing in Nebraska?

After the strenuous climb of the lighthouse, sarcasm, I sat on the shores of Lake Minatare trying to make decisions. I don’t like to do that.

The decisions was made not to cut out Devils Tower National park but rather take a different route to get there. That route goes through South Dakota.

So far I prefer the Scottsbluff topography to that of South Dakota. That may change when I get more in the Black Hills. On the way I did pass a random waterfall and wild horse ranch but wasn’t too impressed. It made me smile at how non cascading the “falls” were. It did seem like a nice place for people in that area to go cool off. The stallion place would be AWESOME but not for 50 bucks. I did see a few standing around and one ran with me for awhile. That was cool.

I then came to the town rather hard hit by the economic crisis. You could still see the beauty, walk along the river, or in it, for a mile, and there are a few tourists things to do. Hot Springs seems like an amazingly beautiful place and I wish it the best of luck. If you go, stop and see the man in the old train depot which is now the information stop/ He was a great persona and greatly helpful.

I then rushed to get to the Wind Cave national Park Visitor Center by 5pm but found it was open until 7. I had the best tour of my life, and I have done a lot of tours. Such a unique, large, unknown cave system. A must see. Make sure you get Ranger Sam. He makes it even more special. If I wasn’t on the second to last tour of the day I would have gone on the four hour learn to be a cave explorer and mapping tour, or the candlelight tour would be so much better. That doesn’t mean what I did wasn’t worth it. It just wasn’t as action packed as the park could be.

Another time for decisions and again I struggled. Where to stay? I drove in and out of the campsite, did a few turns to go to different trail heads (it’s 7pm), then it happened. I saw some wild bison/buffalo and prairie dogs. I was content and could go to sleep. HA
Setting up the tent, arranging the car, and walking to pay the camp few all equals work. Then at 9pm there was a ranger held activity in the outdoor theater. Hello slide show. Not very exciting but glad I did it.

Now its time for bed. Too bad I have to take the tent down.
Two bad things about road tripping alone. Decisions and tent putting up. Also, I need to be more outgoing.