RV USA: Mt Rushmore, Deadwood and Devils Tower

Hey everyone, how are you doing? Welcome back! For those of you who don't know us, I'm Julia and I'm Gary and we're traveling the States and Canada for this year. So where have we been? Well, in this episode we traveled all the way from Mount Rushmore to Devil's Tower. We did take in a couple of really interesting sights on the way. We went to Deadwood and we also went to the biker's town of Hewlett. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. But we stopped over there and it was really interesting. But first of all, we went to Mount Rushmore and we stayed in a national forest campground called Horse Thief Lake Campground. It cost us about $20. It was fairly primitive and it had a long drop toilet in there. I didn't go in it! No showers! However, for overnighting next to Mount Rushmore, it was perfect. It's only about three miles away. It was great. And you can park your RV in there all day long. And that's what we did. We stayed pretty much for the day, had our lunch and then we went in the day and we went at the evening as well. Have a look at this. First glimpse of Mount Rushmore. Wow. So we stayed in the campervan and had our dinner with Gary in the car park and now we've come back for the night show. It's got a really nice calm atmosphere but it's great. We'll show you it now. Look at this. They haven't even lit up the rocks yet. It was brilliant wasn't it Gary? It was so magic. It was very good wasn't it? The way it was done and when it goes, it lights up and everything. It's a real privilege to come to these places isn't it? Yeah. We had a brilliant night there. It was just magic wasn't it? It was really good. So then we went on to Deadwood and it was really weird because when we were looking at the map, I got a text from our friend Corinne and Paul from Reds Go Travel and she basically said, you know, are you going to Deadwood? Just as I was looking at the map for Deadwood, I was like that's a bit weird. I felt like I was on Big Brother or something. Somebody knew what I was doing. So big shout out to you guys and this one's especially for you. But it was a bit of a mare for Well, so this one we decided to do a bit different and I would take on the filming. You decided you wanted to try filming it and narrating it at the same time. So doing two things at once. Yeah, it didn't work. Well, the camera was like shaking like mad and we didn't realise we came out at the like and we we had to be off. So we're on a bit of a timescale. And just as we're about leaving, I said, let me just have a quick look at that footage. And it was like everywhere. I was like, oh, my gosh, Gary, is it all like this? The narration was brilliant, Babs, I've got to say. And it was all off the top of his head. You know, he's got it there. But so we had to just film a little bit and overlay some imagery. But we did have some comical moments, as you'll see. Check this out. So here we are on the main street of Deadwood. Now, Deadwood got its started its history way back in 1874, although not Deadwood itself. But in 1874, there was gold found in the southern part of the Black Hills. Now, two years later, in the northern part here, there was another gold strike. And literally overnight, Deadwood increased its population by 25,000 people. Now it got its name because the gold was found in a gully or a gulch as they call it here. And along that gully along with the gold was a load of fallen trees that they had to move in order to get the gold. Hence the name Deadwood. So that's where it got its name from. Now, of course, with all those 25,000 gold prospectors also came the merchants to sell them stuff, the outlaws to steal that stuff, and the brothel to obviously help with the spending that stuff. So that's what was there. The most famous people to live in Deadwood and die as it happens in Deadwood was Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Now, as the story goes, Wild Bill Hickok was playing cards in a saloon. In fact, it's that saloon straight ahead of us there. On the 2nd of August in 1876, when up to him walked a man called Jack McCall. Now, Wild Bill at the time was playing poker and in his hand was aces and eights. And to this day, that hand is called the dead man's hand. I haven't got the energy to laugh. It's just ridiculous. So I walked up there and it's a slog. I mean, it's a slog. It's about half a mile and it's like that. I told you I didn't want to do it. There are people giving up halfway and turning around going down. Oh really? Yeah, there are. Anyway, I got to the top all chuffed to bits of myself and there's a bloody admissions booth. Two dollars and of course I left everything here because I didn't want to carry it in my rucksack because it was too heavy. A couple of dollars? So now I'm going to have to go back up again. Oh, are you going to do it? You can't come here without going to the graves, can you? But I can. I'm going to have to. Of course. I'm going to have to. There's no way to take the RV. There definitely isn't. Oh, that was a brilliant day, wasn't it? It was a great day. So then we decided we were going to head up to Devil's Tower, which is the first site designated as a national monument. Yeah. And on the way there is this town called Hewlett and it looks like a very western looking town. It's amazing. And it's also a mecca for bikers. So have a look at this. So we're on our way to Devil's Tower and we've just come through this lovely little town called Hewlett, haven't we? I hope that's how you pronounce it in Wyoming. Anyway, we've donned our cowboy hats because, you know, it's quite sunny and also, you know, I can't help myself. I've got my Dolly Parton t-shirt on. Dolly for president. But this place is quite renowned for something else, isn't it, Bab? It is. Every year there's the Sturgis Annual Motorcycle Rally. And how many people come along to it? Tens of thousands of bikers here. And it's tiny. So tens of thousands of bikers come in here. They must be making enough in that one day. They must do. I know for some for sure they don't need a sheriff. So I'm not going to be a sheriff here, especially with all those bikers around. Well, I don't know, Babes. You've got some real presence in your sheriff get up. It's the presence I don't want. And look at this. This is the saloon bar. Honestly, it looks amazing. Here's like the museum and the art gallery for the place. It's really interesting. This is literally just off the road as you stop. Look at this, Gary. Now, this is we won't go that far, will we? And get a sidecar. Some really interesting artifacts here. What have you got? What's that there, Babes? It's a dinosaur bone. It's the femur from a brachiosaur. So that's just one of its leg bones. So just imagine how big it must have been. Oh, look, Gary, there's a pair of chaps. I know. I'm dying to get in. I'm really holding myself back. This is obviously where you park. There's the Devils Tower there. Gosh, this is lovely. So we're still waiting by this traffic light system. Bit of a coup. Gary's just got to fly out of the van that's been buzzing around for quite a bit. Nice one, Gary. So what's going on? What do you think that ranger's doing? I think what they're doing is they're making sure not too many cars get into the system at once. So they're only allowing a few in once a few have gone out. But this guy's just gone up the hill there to have a look at how big the queue is. So obviously that's a factor for it. Here we go. Here's the traffic light system. Park ranger. So there must be the car park up the top here. We've driven all the way up. It's quite a bit of a drive from the entry, isn't it? Yeah, about three miles. And there's all sorts of animals around here as well. We read last night there's elk and everything, isn't there? Elk, deer, bear, coyote and mountain lion. We haven't got any bear spray, babe. I hope we're not going to need it. I'm going to stay on the path because all your advice is just to say hey bear, isn't it? You've got to let them know you're there so they're not startled. So yeah, hey bear's as good as anyone. So I think hey bear is the actual thing you're supposed to say, isn't it? I think so, yeah. That's what I read. Yeah, you're supposed to say hey bear. But I don't know if I could be, I think my throat will go really dry. I'll be like I won't be able to say anything. So there is, looks like there's specific RV parking. We've just gone past on the side, haven't we Gary? So we're going to try to turn around, but it's really busy. It's much more busy than I was expecting it to be, if I'm honest. Yeah, me too. I didn't realise it was going to be this popular. No, I didn't. It's definitely one out one in here. It's so busy. Here we go. We've just got another RV. We'll go just behind him. Lovely. Just parked up and it's literally just there behind us, isn't it Gary? It's quite something else. I'm just like Mario the plumber, I'm afraid. I've had to put some shorts on. I've got a really white body because I hate wearing shorts, don't I babe? Yeah. It's hard to describe how gorgeous it is. Beginning of the trail, so we're going to do a trail. It's about two kilometres by all accounts. A little water fountain, plenty of toilets around and everything. It's really lovely. The whole walkway is almost like fenced off like a trail, isn't it Gary? So it's quite good actually. Climbing above Boulder Field requires registration. So do you think that's Boulder Field? Yeah, this is the Boulder Field. So what I'm trying to say is if you want to climb the rock, you need to register as a rock climber and get proper permission. So in other words, don't stray off the trail. Oh, I won't be doing that anyway. That was really interesting. What's this Gary? So this one basically says that the lines in the side of it were made by bears claws as it was trying to get to the people, the Indians, that were on top of the Devil's Tower. The youngest known climbers are a six-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl and the oldest one's like 90. That's just a shame. That's not going to be me. Seriously, I couldn't climb on that chair behind you, never mind the hat. A couple of loop choices. You've got this one ahead. That's a more difficult one, isn't it Bab? And we're just going to do the 1.6 mile loop, are we? Yeah. Okay, perfect. Walk around the base of it, don't you basically Bab? Yeah. But there's lots of rocks and that it gets a bit more narrower and it's fairly steep but not massively. I suppose it's about a medium if you're doing like difficulty levels. So I'm not sure if you guys can see this but there is actually somebody climbing up there. There's not a chance. There's a few of us discussing this down the bottom and not one of us would do it for all the money in the world. Exiting the park now and the colour of those rocks they're probably not even going to show up as vibrant as they actually are. But it was fantastic. It was far more, I don't know, spiritual than you might imagine as well. It's wonderful. It's really quite a spiritual place, isn't it? It's beautiful, yeah. So next week you'll see me getting attacked in a yak farm. This is coming up next week. But we're also going to have our first night in a Walmart car park. We never stayed in one until recently, did we? So we'll give you the lowdown on what it's like to stay in a Walmart car park and then we're going to this amazing down. So if you're interested in all that and more why don't you hit that subscribe, give us a lovely like, ding-a-ling-a-ling that bell. Whatever you do, have a great week. We love you loads. Take care. Thanks for watching everyone. See you soon. Bye.