Day 6 Vacaton Pics

[Don McRitchie]

Today was a travel day from Butte MT, where I overnighted, to the Black Hills SD where I will end my vacation. To start with, some morning pictures of Butte.

[Don McRitchie]

Butte is famous as the city built on copper mining. Unfortunately, the mines shut down in the mid 80's. When I was first there in 1987, Butte was one of the most godforsaken cities I had ever visited. Most downtown businesses were boarded up. There were hundreds of abandonned homes. Finally, there was a huge gaping hole near the centre of town that had been the last attempt at mining with an open pit operation. I'm glad to see that things are beginning to turn around. The city realized the historical signifigance of their many turn of the century business blocks and these are slowly being rehabbed as tourist shops, restaurants and bars.

[Don McRitchie]

One of the dozens of abandonned mine shafts that dot the skyline.

[Don McRitchie]

The city still shows obvious signs of decay that will take many years to turn around.

[Don McRitchie]

And now it's finally out of the mountains and on to the great expanse of the open prairie.

[Don McRitchie]

There are ghost towns out here too. However, compared to the mining ghost towns that I visited, which were hidden deep in the wilderness, prairie ghost towns are right on the highway for everyone to see. The prairies are quickly becoming depopulated as corporate farms as large as 30,000 acres replace the thousands of family farms that used to average 300 acres 50 years ago.

[Don McRitchie]

But what's this rising out of the flat prairies? It's the Black Hills of South Dakota. I always find this place amazing. Surrounded by flat prairie lands on all sides, there is an island of hills and actual mountains that rise to over 8000' in elevation. I have two days to tool around here, after which, it's back to Winnipeg on Friday.

[Regis]

Wow, very cool photo's of Butte! Isn't this your second big vacation recently? I am envious as I wonder if either Sir Don is retired or he's sure got a lot of vacation saved up! Me? I'm sitting on 400 hours of paid vacation. Thanks for sharing the very nice pics.:D

[rockin'rushmore]

Hello and welcome to my part of the world!Not to sound like a travel guide,but there are many things to see and do around here.:bouncy: Glad to have you visit.If you would like to meet please pm me. Have goodtime while you are here!Warren

[John]

Hey Don Did you happen to drive by Devils Tower ??? :drive:

[Don McRitchie]

Hi Warren

I just saw your message. Unfortunately, I'm already out of the Black Hills and overnighting in Chamberlain. Otherwise, I would have loved to get together. I had a long day in the hills, starting at 6:00 AM and geting into Rapid City around 6:00 PM. I was originally planning to spend the night there and then another day in the hills. However, a combination of bad weather, a too close call on a jeep trail, and just plain homesickness caused me to point the SUV towards Winnipeg. Nonetheless, I managed to take over 100 pictures in the hills out of which I will post a few tomorrow when I get home. For now, for Rob's benefit, I think I've gotten this artsy fartsy waterfall thing down. Just for him, a couple of pictures of Roughlock Falls just outside of Spearfish Canyon taken around 6:30 am.

[Don McRitchie]

To Regis

Yes, this is my second vacation, but I am definitely not retired. Both vacations took advantage of work conferences that took me to a US location (Vail CO in May and Bismarck ND now). I then tagged a week's vacation time on to the end. With allowed travel time and weekends, the week's vacation time works out to 10 days of actual vacation time each.

To John

I purposely passed on Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore and the other main touristy attractions. I have been to the Black Hills many times and have done all of the tourist stuff a number of times over. This trip is devoted to the back roads in pursuit of my interest in ghost towns and rail history. More on that when I get back tomorrow.