Wild West II - Colorado Railroad Museum and Crazy Horse, South Dakota

Before we left Denver to drive north to South Dakota, we visited the Colorado Railroad Museum. Amongst all the locomotives and passenger cars or coaches, were three of the seven Rio Grande Southern Galloping Geese. As you can see, they were a cross between an automobile and a freight car, and so were cheaper to build and run. They got their name from the waddling action of the rear car on rough mountainous tracks.
As we drove through Wyoming, we could see the wooded Black Hills of South Dakota in the distance, and we were soon amongst them. It reminded us of the Alpine regions of Germany or Switzerland, with pine trees and log cabins.
At Custer, we bought ice creams from The Purple Pie Place: yummy Blueberry Cheesecake and Rocky Road, before arriving at Crazy Horse.

This is a huge monument to Chief Crazy Horse being carved into a mountainside. To give an idea of the scale, the small 'bump' above the hole in the mountain is a large truck!
It was started by Korczak, a Polish immigrant from Boston, in 1948, and after his death in 1982, the work has been carried on by his family. It will eventually feature the Chief on his horse, pointing to the lands where his people are buried.
What vision and faith Korczak must have had to start such a project!

Poke Bonnets, Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota

I may have a poke bonnet* on here, or it may be part of the covered wagon that I'm setting out in over the Prairies. I look quite happy despite the prospect of a bumpy overland trip in all weathers with all my worldly possessions packed inside.
This photo was taken on Wednesday, the last day of my holiday in Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota. We had sneaked into the children's education room at the Old West Museum, Cheyenne, and couldn't resist the photo opportunity! We had travelled over 2,500 miles, but we'd had an amazing time.

Our first stop was Maroon Bells. This is a mountain at the head of a lake on White River about twelve miles from Aspen, Colorado. Steep wooded slopes rise on each side decorated with the remains of winter snow. Copper-coloured water bubbles over boulders and around a beaver's lodge or home, just like in Narnia, and the mountain stands at the end, 14,000 feet high, its layers of rock highlighted with snow. It's been called "Bells" since 1965 when 8 people were killed climbing its slopes, but it was quite safe to walk along the path by the river in the icy wind, taking photos.

 We couldn't visit Colorado without taking John Denver's Greatest Hits to listen to, and we were pleased to find a Memorial Garden to him in Aspen, surrounded with the trees which give the city its name. It was a quiet sunny place, near the water which I'm sure he would've loved.









I'll tell you more about my holiday soon.

*(See Liz Harris's blog) where she asks if terms like 'poke bonnet' and 'buck fencing' should be used in her historical novel, set in Wyoming, or would bonnet and fencing do? I think that the historic terms add flavour and give a real feeling of the setting. What do you think?