Once a year the Native American tribes celebrate their heritage. This weekend Friday-Sunday there are special events in the entire area to celebrate the Native Indian Days. We saw this around Glacier National Park when we were there several years ago. One of the events is the reenactment of the Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand).
Battle reenactment across the Little Bighorn River from viewing area.
CUSTER’S LAST STAND RE-ENACTMENT: Our Plan B worked! We got to the reenactment safely, saw it and got back to the RV safely. We were the ONLY people on bikes. There were places for horses, cars, pickups but bikes..not so much. The show was interesting. At one point, a herd of horses appeared. Not being horse people, that was pretty impressive – probably over 50 horses being herded by native Americans on bareback.
Herd of Indian horses at the reenactment.
CUSTER BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT, SD: Once safely in the RV, we drove to the Custer Battlefield National Monument, visited the Visitor’s Center, attended a ranger presentation then took our bikes down and rode the 10 mile (round trip) “auto tour” trail. It goes along the ridge and has pullouts with information. The electric bikes were great for getting up and down the rolling hills on the tour route. We could not have ridden it without the electric motor assist. It was a gorgeous day – sunny with a light breeze, which made for a very pleasant ride.
Little Bighorn Monument National Monument
STRANGE WIND: As we were returning, we noticed a strange dust or smoke in the horizon. Terry thought it was a fire. Peggy thought it was a dust devil. We stopped to look at the Native American Memorial, very close to the Custer’s Last Stand Memorial and only a couple of hundred yards from where we parked the RV and the end of our bike ride. Out of nowhere the wind was howling, carrying dust and stuff with it. The wind had gusts so strong they took our breath away. We ducked behind the large granite displays of the Memorial for shelter from the fierce winds. After a few minutes of being pummeled by the wind, we decided to ride on down to the RV. The gusts were so strong that they almost knocked Peggy off her bike (Terry, too). It was a wind storm! Neither of us had ever experienced anything like this. We managed to get the bikes put away and got safely in the RV when it really hit. The RV rocked. The gusts were over 50 mph. Our emergency radio had a calm lady’s voice saying to expect high winds with gusts up to 50 mph but the wind was 40-50 mph with the gusts going higher! We sat in the RV until the wind died down a little (still very strong) before we left the park.
LESSON: Pay attention to the horizon!
It was a fun day. The combination of the reenactment and the ranger presentation gave us a more rounded perspective of what lead up to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Riding our bikes continues to be a blast and very useful in areas where there is limited or no RV parking. The wind storm is something we won't forget for awhile.