Heading to South Dakota

8/5/16

Dear NH,

How are you? By the time you get this letter, camp will be over, and you will be back home. How was camp? Did you get my two letters? I hope so.

I have traveled a long distance. I left Grand Tetons National Park yesterday and made it to a town in Wyoming called Casper. Casper is the 2nd largest city in Wyoming.

This morning, I started my day by visiting the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. This center is a museum that provides information about the Oregon Trail, Mormon Trail, California Trail, and Pony Express Trail. I hadn't realized there were so many trails. Even though some of these trails shared some of the same pathways they all ended in different places.

Here, I am trying to see how hard it would be to pull a handcart.
A handcart is one of the ways pioneers carried their luggage.

After visiting the interpretive center, I made my way northeast toward South Dakota. My plan was to visit Mount Rushmore yesterday, but I ran out of time, and that didn't happen. However, I still did some cool things. I went to a place called Devils Tower. Here, the land looked like it had risen up to form a flat table on top with long lines going up and down the sides. Up close, you could tell that the lines were formed by hundreds of columns of rock in geometric shapes. Basically, you could see rock tables that had 3-7 sides. I had never seen anything like it!

In the land near Devils Tower was a prairie dog community. They are super cute!

After visiting Devils Tower, it was getting a bit late, but I went off roading in the Black Hills and found a place to camp. (Off roading is basically driving on a dirt road.) Today, I will continue off roading east through Black Hills National Forest until I hit a paved road in South Dakota. I look forward to hearing about camp!

Your teacher,

Elaina