Pronghorns and crocs and bison, oh my!
After breakfast I backtracked on I16 to the Reptile Gardens. It was worth it. The reptiles were generally bigger and healthier than than ours are/were. Most were housed in a round building that reminded me of our (now demolished) reptile pavilion. They have a lot more species than we ever had, even when we had tubs and terraria of off-display reptiles lining the service corridors. They also had over a dozen species of poisonous snakes, including an Australian brown snake, two or three species of mamba, and a king cobra. In the center of the building was a walk-through exhibit crawling with snakes, lizards, turtles and birds as well as orchids, tree ferns and bananas. The only carnivorous plant I saw was a small venus flytrap in a wall of two gallon terraria housing various terrestial invertebrates near the frogs. I cornered the amphibian keeper and bent her ear with questions and anecdotes. I took pictures of the dart frog exhibits and a (cave dwelling!) moss frog sign for future reference. They have an alligator that was one of several that were in a James Bond flic. On the wall there was a funny story about how the director/producer had hired an animal wrangler for the Bond movie who insisted that running across the backs of live alligators would be a lot more compelling than using animatronic versions. He also volunteered to perform the stunt. On his first try he didn't get very far before he was thrown into the water and badly mauled. After he got out of the hospital he insisted he knew where he went wrong, so he tried again. He got a lot further but again he got thrown and mauled and hospitalized. The second try was good enough for the movie so that's what got used. IIRC, the wrangler got rid of all his gators and eventually was killed by a tiger. In an exhibit next to their star gator is an Australian salt water croc and the tale of all the hassle they had to go through to get it to the Reptile Gardens. The rest of their alligators are in an exhibit outdoors and are part of a meet the reptile keeper show (which I skipped). Their tortoises are also outdoors already and cropping the grass. It was after 3pm by the time I got back on the road.
US 16 is a fun road with lots of turns and ups and downs. After the turn off for Mount Rushmore it got pretty narrow, hugging the contour of the hills. All through the Black Hills National Forest there were large areas that had gone up in flames. I pulled over several times to take pictures of the burn areas, wild flowers and rock formations. I got to Jewel Cave National Monument at 4:10pm. The person working the desk told me in one breath that there are no more tours after 4:30 and I couldn't visit the cave. I looked at the clock on the wall: 4:10 pm. I asked her: since the "tours" end at 4:30 I should be able to go down and take a look. Did these "tours" require a guide? I looked down the hall to see if there was a guide lurking behind a pillar. The clerk looked peeved and repeated that the "tours" end at 4:30 and suggested I go watch their power-point show instead. I guess what she meant was that the cave has to be clear of all visitors by 4:30 and not that they stop letting people in at 4:30. She's probably snarking about idiot long-haired tourists in head bands on customers_suck right now.
The silver lining is that I saw two turkeys on the way there and that leaving early gave me more time to make stops on US 85 and 18.
At the junction between US 16 and US 85 I still had an eighth of a tank of gas left from the day before but I stopped anyway. The distance since the last station got me worried I wouldn't make it to the next one. Good thing I did. Not much gas on US 85 but boy were there a lot of pronghorns. Right out of Newcastle two pronghorns crossed the road right in front of me. I slowed down and hopefully got some ok pictures of them before I spooked them. I also saw a female pronghorn nursing her fawn. All along the US 85 the fields were dotted with pronghorns. Cool. Later a fox dashed across right in front of me. A rabbit too. On the US 18 I saw a herd of bison about as close to the road as the fence would allow. It was sunset before I got to I25.
I was going to stay at the Hampton Inn in Casper but it's booked solid. It seems there's a Shriner's convention in town. I eventually found a room at The Shilo Inn. $104 plus tax. 8^( But there will be breakfast. Tomorrow I'd better boogie. I'd like to be within a few hours of Portland before stopping for the night.
US 16 is a fun road with lots of turns and ups and downs. After the turn off for Mount Rushmore it got pretty narrow, hugging the contour of the hills. All through the Black Hills National Forest there were large areas that had gone up in flames. I pulled over several times to take pictures of the burn areas, wild flowers and rock formations. I got to Jewel Cave National Monument at 4:10pm. The person working the desk told me in one breath that there are no more tours after 4:30 and I couldn't visit the cave. I looked at the clock on the wall: 4:10 pm. I asked her: since the "tours" end at 4:30 I should be able to go down and take a look. Did these "tours" require a guide? I looked down the hall to see if there was a guide lurking behind a pillar. The clerk looked peeved and repeated that the "tours" end at 4:30 and suggested I go watch their power-point show instead. I guess what she meant was that the cave has to be clear of all visitors by 4:30 and not that they stop letting people in at 4:30. She's probably snarking about idiot long-haired tourists in head bands on customers_suck right now.
The silver lining is that I saw two turkeys on the way there and that leaving early gave me more time to make stops on US 85 and 18.
At the junction between US 16 and US 85 I still had an eighth of a tank of gas left from the day before but I stopped anyway. The distance since the last station got me worried I wouldn't make it to the next one. Good thing I did. Not much gas on US 85 but boy were there a lot of pronghorns. Right out of Newcastle two pronghorns crossed the road right in front of me. I slowed down and hopefully got some ok pictures of them before I spooked them. I also saw a female pronghorn nursing her fawn. All along the US 85 the fields were dotted with pronghorns. Cool. Later a fox dashed across right in front of me. A rabbit too. On the US 18 I saw a herd of bison about as close to the road as the fence would allow. It was sunset before I got to I25.
I was going to stay at the Hampton Inn in Casper but it's booked solid. It seems there's a Shriner's convention in town. I eventually found a room at The Shilo Inn. $104 plus tax. 8^( But there will be breakfast. Tomorrow I'd better boogie. I'd like to be within a few hours of Portland before stopping for the night.