September 13, 2007 – Pictograph Caves and Little Bighorn Battlefield

This morning we visited the Pictograph Caves State Park. It is an archaeological site with many cave paintings thousands of years old. Excavation of the floor of the caves revealed over 30,000 artifacts from pre-historic times. Digs from the area in front of the caves revealed many Indian artifacts.

Pictograph Cave:
Some of the pictographs (they were hard to see):

Ghost cave (no one knows the origin of the name):

Views from the caves:


We took the interpretive trail to each of the caves (middle cave was closed) and the surrounding area – what an interesting morning.

We then traveled to Garryowen and set up camp at the 7th Ranch RV Camp - another really nice private campground.

Once we set up we went to Little Bighorn Battlefield (our main reason for being here).

We stopped at the visitor center and found out we were too late for the bus tour. So we did the museum and went to the Ranger Talk on the battle. What was so fascinating is how real he made it for us. As he talked and told us about the battle, he was able to point to the different areas of the battlefield.

Here is a picture of Custer’s last stand:

We also visited the National Cemetery that is next to the visitor center. The cemetery contains the remains of ~5000 veterans and their families from the Indian Wars, Spanish American War, WWI and II, Korean War and the Vietnam War.

We have decided to stay another day and explore this area, take the tour and the trails.

This evening we met our neighbors and had a nice chat while we were watching the sunset. It is beautiful here - the skies are so clear and so blue during the day and so starry at night. When the sun sets, it turns the wheat colored grasses to an orange/red color. (Sorry, no pictures, it was hard to capture the color change.)

Miles Traveled: 67
Routes Traveled:
Montana: I-90