On our drive from Cheyenne to Hill City yesterday, South Dakota, we planned to stop at Chimney Rock. It's a natural landmark first spotted by white men back in the 1800's when coming west along the Platte River. The Indians actually named it after a male elk's private parts, but the white settlers thought it looked like a chimney, and the rest is history.
While much of the Platte River Road was flat, Chimney Rock marked the warning signs of mountains to come.
As settlers passed the massive rock spire, thousands stopped to carve their names in it to mark their passage through. Because of erosion, the top of the spire is shorter than it used to be, and many of the names have worn off.
We checked out the Visitor Center, which has some nice exhibits and a short movie. Unfortunately, they don't let you walk out to Chimney Rock to see all the names carved on it. I'm not sure if it's on private land or if they just want to keep idiots from carving their names on it. I'd really like to see that up close.
There were lots of sunflowers and other wildflowers growing on the prairie around Chimney Rock, and I took pictures of them while we waited for Jeff to get some work done.
We picked up some books and candy sticks in the gift shop. Nebraska has most of the major pioneer trails westward going through the state: the California, Oregon and Mormon Trails. The Pony Express all followed the route through here. They have some brochures on the trails, and we picked them up in case they might be a good plan for a future RV trip.
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