_Day 44 - 28 July - 203 Miles
Agate Fossil Beds
_The Parks
There is a sign near the entrance of the Agate Fossil Beds that warns “Caution Rattlesnakes”. Critters don’t run away out here like they do back east! My personal experience with rattlers was at Bear Butte SD a couple years back. The sound I kept hearing in the scrub reminded me of cicadas. One night I nearly walked into a big rattler in the camp kitchen, that’s when I knew for sure I had NOT been listening to cicadas! The sound is not as distinctive as TV makes it seem. The Visitor Center has a wealth of information on Native History as well as fossils. The creatures that once roamed this part of the continent could come out of sci-fi. The Road It’s easy to forget what decade (century?) it is while passing through the small towns out here. The filling station in Harrison doesn’t look to have changed from the 1960s. Get gas where you can! The road north through the Oglala National Grasslands looked rough, with the prospect of getting worse, so it was east on Route 20 to Fort Robinson, then north on Route 71 into Hot Springs SD. Lodging All the campgrounds in Custer State Park were full. The Welcome Center, formerly the world’s “Smallest Union Depot” (1891-1938), provided a number for camping at Wind Cave National Park. Our Rand McNally atlas had not indicated a campground there. |