Road Trip #2: Little Big Horn

After our 'wonderful' night's lodging in the Walmart parking lot, we made our way East.  We decided to check out Little Big Horn on the way, and we're glad we did.  It was very interesting to learn more about Custer and the indians in that area.  One thing we learned all along this trip was that things are never really as you imagined them to be.

Winston next to the memorial at the top of the hill.

It was really quite a beautiful, peaceful place, considering the violence that happened here.  Over 200 men lost their lives on this little bit of rolling prairie.  There are grave markers all over the hillsides.  One here and a bunch over there, all scattered about.

Of course the biggest concentration of them was on the hill where Custer made his last stand.  It's all fenced off now.  Kind of humbling to see.

The trees you see in the background is where the indians were camped.  This picture makes it look like the trees were a long way off, but they really were pretty close to this spot.  There were several tribes gathered there including the Sioux, Cheyenne and Crow.  That is where Custer attacked them, right above the tree line on this side of the Little Big Horn River.  I think his group were hopelessly out numbered.

Custer's grave, in the midst of others. 

Tom sitting next to the indian memorial.  There weren't nearly as many indian markers as there were calvary markers.  I don't know if that's because not very many indians were killed, or the indians just carried their dead from the battlefield.

This is one of the indian markers.

I took this picture for my brother-in-law Jeremy.

Here is one of the MANY calvary markers.  No name, just a stone.  Many of the bodies were found years later, with no way to identify them, other than they were calvary officers.

This is the ravine that Crazy Horse rode up with his gang to finish Custer's gang off.  It's pretty steep, and would have been cover for sneaking up on someone.  It leads right to where the last stand happened.

After all that walking in the very hot weather, we decided to eat lunch in the car with the air conditioning on.  Our travelling food:  grapes, tomatos, cheese sticks and beef stick and LOTS of water!

This was a great place to stop and learn a little history.  They have a really nice museum and interpretive center here.  Also a lot of guided tours and Ranger Talks where you can listen to the stories of all that happened here.

As we were driving around it, getting ready to leave, we got to see a NEWBORN colt amongst a bunch of horses that roam the land there.  They looked like wild horses, and it was really neat to see one that had just been born.

After leaving here, we headed to the East end of Wyoming.  More on that later!