Deadwood to Keystone

Checking out of the Franklin Hotel was a bad experience as well. Even though I had had to sign a confirmation that I accepted the nightly rate of $39 they tried to charge us $69 for Friday night as that is considered the week end. They had to call the manager to get it agreed that we only pay the $39 and then they still charged the full amount to the credit card and had to refund us in cash because they couldn’t figure out how to process a credit card refund. Hardly a glowing reference to the best hotel in town, allegedly! Then we walked across the street for our 50c breakfast only to find it was now $6.95, it’s the week end!

Time to get out of Dodge, or rather Deadwood. We are down the road before we remember we have a free car wash token, too late. We take the 385 south and our first detour is around Pactola Reservoir, the water was the most perfect blue and as still as a mill pond except for the wake of small canoe. We saw whitetails in the woods and could tell why they are so called. Then southwards again past Sheridan Lake and onto Hwy 16 into Keystone.

We booked into the White House Hotel and dump the bags, then straight to Mount Rushmoor. We walked around the Presidential Trail and took loads of pictures from all the angles, including the nostril views! Also took a picture of the sculptor’s model, one twelfth scale that was used to control the carving of the full size monument. Due to a change in the composition of the stone below the shoulders the monument had to be reduced to heads only.

As there was still some of the day left we carried on Hwy 244 to Hill City, a western town with raised boardwalks and the usual gift shops. We had a walk around and then took Hwy 16 to complete a loop back to Keystone.