Oh, give me home where the pronghorn roam

It was a beautiful sunny day as my sister and I left Billings, MT for our first destination of the day, Pompey's Pillar National Monument. The interpretive center there describes the journey of William Clark after he and Meriwether Lewis completed their Corps of Discovery to the Pacific Ocean.

 

The site also has the only existing evidence of that journey...Clark's signature etched on Pompey's Pillar.  We climbed up a staircase to see it, but was really hard to see the signature through the protective covering, so I'm showing the replica here.  In addition, there is a register consisting of many other signatures of other people who have passed by the area around the same time.  At the top of the staircase, we surveyed the Yellowstone River that Clark's party traveled on a long time ago.

In the afternoon, we traveled south to Fort Phil Kearny Historic Site.  This was the site of the worst defeat of the U.S. Army by the Plains Indians before it was surpassed by the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The fort itself no longer exists, but the area surrounding it has changed little since that time. 

After looking around the fort area, we traveled a short distance to the main battle site.  A memorial to Captain William Fetterman is located there as well as a trail with interpretive signs outlining the series of events that led to the loss of all 81 men who fought valiantly against a force of over 2000 Indians. 

To the north is Lodge Trail Ridge where Fetterman rode down to meet the main Indian force located on a small hill.  They were forced to retreat to the adjacent hill where they were all killed in just 30 minutes.  The memorial is located at that site, which you can see in the distance in the first photo.  

For the past couple of days while driving through Montana, and today through Wyoming and South Dakota, we've been seeing LOTS of pronghorn antelope lounging and grazing in the hills.  While leaving Fort Phil Kearny, I spotted a herd of around a dozen antelope in a field next to the road.  We stopped to take pictures, then watched the male antelope attempting to keep his harem from straying.  First, a female and her two half-grown calves started trotting away from the herd.  He took notice and quickly ushered them back.  Then, another female attempted to RUN away, forcing him to give chase and make her think otherwise.  It was pretty entertaining to watch. 

Tomorrow, it looks to be another beautifully sunny day.  But, we'll be spending most of it indoors doing a couple of museums.  At least it beats hours of driving, which I seem to be doing a lot of lately.