Devil's Tower

Big Day!

After the slow Mitchell charger, nice and fast again in Murdo and in Rapid City (appropriately enough). Of course had to do a drive-by here.....

Never having driven through South Dakota before, I will tell you that although the eastern part is pretty flat a boring (like southern Minnesota) once I crossed the Missouri River it was REALLY PRETTY. I have driven through Nebraska a zillion times on I-80. I would have to highly recommend I-90 instead!!

I found myself consistently using a bit less energy than the EV TripPlanner folks predicted, so I patiently waited through a full-to-the-top charge in Rapid City and headed off to Devil's Tower. It was a little scary since it was driving AWAY FROM the next available super charger. Lovely scenery. I arrived having "burned" about 120 miles of range (150 left in the car) so theoretically I could drive back to Rapid City without a charge, but the lady at the KOA was super nice. The KOA is immediately outside the entrance to the national park. I plugged in at a 50 amp spot and walked through the ranger gate and hiked up Devil's Tower.

Well, actually I hiked up to the BOTTOM of Devil's Tower, which is a very large rock. Very. Once I got up to the Visitor Center there was a paved path which was much easier than the dirt and stick and stone one up the perimeter. There were some crazy people coming down the side of the tower on ropes which looked fun / terrifying. 

the most photographed rock in the world

I did not wait around to see what lived in this hidey-hole

or this one!

Does this look like a Ninja Turtle to anyone besides me?

Their squirrels are very light on their feet. And a different color than I'm used to!

It really is a cool surface. Apparently great for "crack" rock climbing

in case you needed a reference to see how big those "columns" are... 

After a few hours in the park, I hitched a ride back down to the KOA to find my car up to 263 miles (yay!) Curious campers wanted to hear about the car. "How'd you get that thang here all the way from Wisconsin?" "Where's the damn engine?" But mostly friendly, if perhaps lubricated with some distilled beverage...

After my escape, I consulted my maps and decided I could go STRAIGHT TO THE NEXT SUPERCHARGER in Lusk, WY rather than going back to Rapid City to charge. Woo-hoo! Big time saver. Lusk is the county seat of the least-populated county in Wyoming, which is the least populated state in the union. All I know is it was VERY DARK on Hwys 585 and 85 on the way down here, and apparently these roads are frequently closed (presumably for snow) since there were lots of signs and flashing lights and gates at various intersections making sure you didn't get yourself down the wrong rabbit hole. I have never seen so many deer at the edge of the road --- those barb wire fences did a good job of keeping the cattle out of the road, but I saw more than one mule deer leap right over, and probably slowed down 10 times in the 150 miles for deer actually crossing the road )in addition to the ones just standing nearby.) The lumpy pavement was also testament to plenty of smaller critters who had also wandered onto the highway. But the near-full-moon rise over the Black Hills was spectacular. Too bad pictures of the moon never really do it justice...