Geezers, Wyoming and South Dakota - Geezer VIII Day 2

Day 9

Everybody was up by 8:00 today as we were headed north to the Little Big Horn Battlefield and wanted to be on the road by 9:00.  We actually left on time and headed for our first stop of the day.  Steph has been interested in alpacas and she had been in touch with a lady who runs an alpaca ranch, which was located on our way to the Little Big Horn.

We arrived at Big Horn Mountain Alpacas just before 10:00 and met the owner Mariann and her daughter Maria.  If anyone is interested, Mariann took a picture of us all and posted it on her facebook page.  She had about 15 alpacas along with a donkey, angora rabbits, ducks and various other animals.  We had a very interesting tour and really enjoyed hearing about alpacas and the problems and rewards of raising them. It was obvious that Marianne really loved her animals.  It was soon time to press on and we continued our drive north.

Maggie greeted us a we started our tour.

Alpaca faces seem to have some human resemblance.

Jack and Steph with a new friend.

Maggie took a liking to Greg and followed him around.

Maria with a young alpaca.

Mariann with one of the angora rabbits.

Maria with one of their geese.

We crossed over into Montana and arrived at the Little Big Horn National Battlefield Monument by 12:30.  We were all hungry and the only place to eat in the area was a café at a nearby Indian casino which was really just a fast food place.  After lunch we entered the Little Big Horn Battlefield and looked at the exhibits in the visitors center and saw an introductory movie on the area and the events leading up to “Custer’s Last Stand”.  After the movie we took the self-guiding tour through the park and saw the locations of the battles and Indian encampments.  It was all very interesting and we left with a deeper understanding of what really happened during that fateful time.

Markers where cavalrymen had fallen were scattered around the Little Bighorn Battle area.

 

There were also markers identifying where Native American warriors had fallen.

The area inside the fenced area is where Custer made his last stand.

There was also a monument to the Native Americans, which gave their perspective of the battle.

The quote at the top is certainly food for thought and presents a different perspective.

It was getting late in the afternoon and we had a long drive back to Big Horn so we finished our tour and started back just before 5:00.  We had to stop in Sheridan for some supplies and didn’t get back to the house until 7:00 so we just decided to have leftovers or whatever you could find (which was plentiful) for dinner.  Jack and I had several more videos so that was the entertainment for the evening and then we called it a night.