BlackHills/Yellowstone Day 3

Up early and on our way to the Center of the Nation - Belle Fousche, SD. In case you were wondering, that's where it is. An odd spot if you ask me, since SD is like 2 states down from Canada, but I'll explain. See it's not an exact science (Duh!), but what they do is take a cardboard cut out of the nation. Balance it on a pin and where ever it perfectly balances is the center. So when they factor in for Hawaii and Alaska, it puts it right smack in the middle of someone's farm field 20 miles outside of Belle Fousche.

It took us waaaaay longer than I expected to drive the dirt road out there, so we were waaaay behind schedule for Devil's Tower which was 5.5 hours away, which also took waaaaay longer to hike the 1.5 miles around the base, which put us waaaaay behind for the Buffalo Bill Cody Firearms Museum, which eliminated the possibilty of seeing the Shootout at the Irma Hotel, which allowed us to change our route, skip Cody, WY and make an unplanned visit to the Battle of Little Bighorn Battlefield. So Marshall had to trade his one bit of history for another.

You may have heard there is a drought going on right now, and many Western States are having fires. We drove along side a ridge that was burning. You could see the smoke for miles. I was just so taken aback by the magnitude of this "little" fire. I can't even imagine worse. The smoke shadowed the sun. Another unexpected sight to add to our trip.

We ended the night in Red Lodge, Montana. So lets review: That was SD to WY to MT.