I’ll never forget the first time I went to the Black Hills of South Dakota  and saw Mount Rushmore. I was on a quest to visit all 50 states and I had three left- South Dakota, North Dakota and Hawaii.

I’ve heard a saying that you go to some famous places three times in your life: As a child, with your children and on a senior bus trip. In this case, I was an adult taking my parents on a road trip through Wyoming to the Black Hills. The trip opened my eyes to the real American west as we saw vast plains, antelope and read about the history in the area in our AAA TourBook and on historic site signs.

Once in the Black Hills area, we ate dinner in Keystone and then went to our motel for the night.  To our amazement, as we sat on the deck of our hotel room that evening the monument of presidents lit up before us. The first time you see this you’ll never forget it. The next day my father took rolls and rolls of pictures (before digital cameras) and wanted to go back the next day to see the monument one more time.

Since that trip I relocated to live in South Dakota with my husband and two daughters and because we have family in Colorado and Cheyenne, we regularly drive to the Black Hills and eastern Wyoming.


There are many highlights each time we road trip to Wyoming and among my daughters favorites is Lost Springs. If you are on U.S. 18/20 on the eastern edge of Converse County, you must stop at the sign that declares Lost Springs as a town with a population of one.  

My teenage daughters still get excited about Lost Springs. (We just hope the 2010 census doesn’t indicate a population boom). The town features the famous Lost Bar and Town Hall. There is an antique store that contains the local post office (established in 1896) and you can see the coal trains that pass the town entrance, usually with as many as 135 cars headed east.
My daughters always try to count the cars and usually give up before the end.  

If you have time to get off the beaten path, you’ll see wildlife and historic sites which make the road trip more memorable. You probably won’t see a jackalope, though,  as the jackalope was created in the 1930s by a taxidermist from Douglas, Wyoming - a cross between an antelope and jackrabbit. Natives will tell big tales about jackalopes to those who will listen.

Next:  A journey through Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park.