Black Hills National Forest and Heading to Yellowstone

Feeling significantly more patriotic, I headed away from Mt. Rushmore, taking the Peter Norbeck Senic Byway with geologic formations jutting out of the trees and towering over the roadway.  Driving the loop, I headed to the west end of Black Hills where road construction really slowed me down.  There was literally no road.  You follow a pilot car that guides you around bulldozers and workers, both of whom are not paying any attention to the car caravan.  

I took a pretty sketchy dirt road into the park's interior, reaching Deerfield Lake.  At the lakeside picnic area, fired up the stove to make coffee with a nice dinner of hummus, red peppers, and string cheese.  A truck stopped by while I was eating and this guy named Cory stepped out with his beagle puppy.  Not sure if you've ever seen a beagle puppy, but it'll make your heart melt.  He wrote for a local magazine and gave me hikes I needed to do and areas in which to camp.  I told him I was headed for the west coast and Seattle, with his response being, "f**k Seattle.  I've lived there and this place is supreme!"  

Black Hills makes free camping really easy by allowing you to pull off designated dirt roads and set up camp within 30 feet of the road.  Any ranger station will give you detailed maps highlighting camping areas.  One of my favorite sites so far this trip and it being free doesn't hurt either.  Had a perfect view overlooking Deerfield lake, the sun setting behind the hills, and didn't see another person anywhere near my camp area.

Woke up, made some oatmeal and coffee and headed to Harney Peak trail.  The trail winds through rock outcroppings of limestone before coming to a clearing, then climbing again to an old fire watch tower.  I took the long way on this hike, combining three different trails together to make a 12 mile loop with pretty significant elevation gain, reaching about 7500 ft.

Didn't see anyone else on the trail until the fire tower, where a 5th grade class was having a field trip.  Why couldn't I have gone to that school?  Panoramic views in every direction.
The hike down was pretty slow going.  A storm had blown through recently and downed trees littered the trail.  After about 6 hours of hiking, made it back to the car.  

For some reason, got a really bad craving for a Burger King "veggie" burger.  Nice not to cook and clean dishes for a change but my stomach paid the price.  Travel tip about Burger King.  Yes, they do have free wifi but the catch is they don't put any outlets in their eating area.  Probably to keep moochers, such as myself, from milling around for too long.

Rain Thursday (5/15) evening pushed me towards Yellowstone. Wyoming lived up to the hype of having no one in existence within the state.  I've never driven so long on an interstate without seeing another car.  Nobody in front or behind me on my side and going the opposite direction was ghostly empty too.  Pitch black.  Nothing.  

Rain picked up and laxed off for most of the drive making my progress pretty slow.  Learned something new about interstates, at least this is true for Wyoming.  When a rest stop is listed on the map, it doesn't necessarily mean a rest stop that most of us are used to.  They are simply small little pull offs on the highway,  similar to a pull through driveway.  Not a good place to sleep for the night as a semi would easily crush the Subaru.  Getting pretty tired, rest stop signs would appear only to signal another pull through, leading to dashed hopes and frustration.  After numerous false alarms, I found an actual rest stop near centra Wyoming and the town of Sheridan.  Brushed my  and then fell into a sleep coma.  That is one thing that has been no problem on this trip, coma sleep.