To The Black Hills

[liralen]

Pretty much went to get my allergy shots first thing and then headed north and east.

Went through the high desert here, with mostly plowed and plotted land closer to Denver, and as we headed further north and out, it got greener and golder and turned into the Plains. Out in all directions, further than the eye could see as it was an unusually hazy day... so the grass-gold fields stretched along hills out to the horizon.



Then the plains started to roll and I drove along two-lane highways and passed people pretty easily as there were long stretches of straight-aways and hills. Then, suddenly, the hills turned dark with spruce, stone, and Ponderosa pine. I had to get my camera out to get the stone-rooted trees. That's why the Black Hills are called they way they are, because they looked black from the plains.

We ended up at Deadwood. Yeah. Where Wild Bill was shot in the back of the head. Where Custer first found the gold that brought everyone to what was supposed to be reservation land, and they first killed Custer and then were wiped out. Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne. Feels like ghosts on this land. Deadwood is now a gambling down with little metered parking lots all around town that have a trolley that go to dozens of gambling halls in a historical landmark town restored to the very bricks. The cemetery has a walking tour with the people that *played* fictional characters in town having nearly as high a billing as those that were actually here. It turns out that it was called Deadwood because there was a huge fall of dead trees right in the area. Also turns out that the narrow canyon flash floods easily, which is... as you guessed, why there are so many dead trees right there.

It's... odd.

After that was a zip by Sturgis on the way to our hotel. We'll explore that more, later. I'll be very amused if I come home with a motorcycle, but I doubt it. My midlife crisis isn't along those lines, I don't think. Though I'll admit that the thought of owning an Indian really... tugs something in the back of my head.

Jet was great, he napped, watched a movie, and then talked with us for the rest of the eight hour trip. We had dinner at a local brew pub in Rapid City, we're staying out in Black Hawk and will be doing day trips from a hotel we found there. I've had enough of camping, lately.

My brain hurt from some of the writing ideas that I was getting while driving and riding. I had to come back to the hotel and write them down. I feel better now, but I'd better catch up on some sleep before I go back and really do what I want to do with them.

Comments

[incandescens]

Sounds magnificent.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It has been. Surprisingly so. Deadwood being gold country, now, rather than silver and coal like it is down in the Denver area.

More avarice per square mile. *grins*

Beautiful, though. Utterly unpopulated. Seven hours at over 75 miles per hour, and no big cities whatsoever... and not many towns either.

[tagryn]

We've watched the first few episodes of HBO's Deadwood on DVD. Like all of HBO's period pieces its outstanding, but WHOOOOO the foul language used is something else! One article says the producers looked up period obscenities but knew they wouldn't give the shock-effect they needed, since back then words like "darn" were considered beyond the pale (whereas today it'd be considered just mild and a little eccentric if used as a swear word).

Anyway, good site about Deadwood's history here (see links at bottom).

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah. They were Victorian era, basically, so the polite society was really, really polite.

It's interesting to think about the shock value of words now versus then. Thanks for the link!