Stages and Sages

On Friday, I finally took a drive into the county road network that is just West and then South of the town of Custer. I've been eyeing that area on the map for at least a year...turns out it's all ranches out there once you get past the initial group of regular homes, incl. some real nice new ones...

I drove across Custer Park on Rte 16A to reach C.R. 715, and stopped along (upper) French Creek for a quick look-see...found this squirrel clinging to the side of a tree and not much else...

Once I was heading down C.R. 715 S. of Custer, I came upon this large rock with a sign next to it...

Wow...nothing like being immortalized and infamous...have I mentioned that the buffalo were slaughtered in an attempt to make the Native Americans go away? No buffalo, no Indians...cripes...

Some Absinth wormwood (aster) was growing on the rock...

Just a few paces from the rock was this small metal sign...C. R. 715 (or part of it) was a stage coach route for a brief two years...

Broom snakeweed is in bloom now, another aster...

And the fringed sagewort, another aster...

A red-tailed hawk was soaring overhead when I stopped...

...To take photos of the Rocky Mt. gayfeather, yet another aster. The similar, dotted gayfeather also grows in the Black Hills.