Wyoming has the smallest population of any of the 50 states in the Union. That’s apparent as it could possibly be when as we do, you drive from one side of the state to the other. Jackson is on the western edge of Wyoming close to the Idaho state line and our destination today is Rapid City, South Dakota almost 500 miles due east.

Not too long after leaving Jackson, we cross the Continental Divide at around 10,000 feet above sea level before descending several thousand feet to the mostly featureless prairie that covers much of the state east of the Rockies and associated mountain ranges. And I really do mean featureless…This is predominantly cattle country, vast ranches and scattered herds of jet-black beef cattle. Small towns are few and far between. We do pass a few places that might have been communities once, but now consist of nothing more than derelict buildings, former road-houses or bars and disintegrating fuel stations. Predominantly cattle country but not exclusively. Wyoming it turns out is one of the nation’s major producers of oil and natural gas and we pass through the massive Salt Creek oil and gas field where the landscape is dotted with pumping “mules”, oil storage tanks and the infrastructure for extracting natural gas. The larger towns we pass, Casper and Newcastle are dominated by oil refineries and all of the support infrastructure that the oil and gas extraction industry needs. Then not too far from the South Dakota state line, we pass the Black Thunder thermal coal mine, a surface mine (so a humongous hole in the ground) that contains one of the world’s largest deposits of coal and provides the US with 10% of its needs

A few miles further on, crossing the state line into South Dakota and we're in a different world. From the prairie land of eastern Wyoming we're now in the "Black Hills of Dakota", just a few miles from the "Geographic Center of the United States". We've taken this really big diversion into the heart of the Heartland to take a look at Mt Rushmore.

The monument, the heads of four presidents (apparently the intention had been to carve their entire upper halves, but WWII got in the way and the money and resources were needed for more urgent matters!) is actually really rather impressive.

One day, the carving of Crazy Horse atop his horse being carved out of a nearby mountain will be even more impressive. Work on this started in 1949 with no clear sight on when it might be finished (unlikely to be in the lifetime of anybody reading this!!).

(Contrary to the suggestion from one of our readers - thanks Paul!....this is not intended to be the outline for a Trump with a comb over!)

In the heart of the beautiful setting of the Black Hills and on the edge of Custer State Park, the location for these monumental carvings could hardly be better. Bit of a shame that much of the area has become a giant amusement-cum-theme park with everything on offer from helicopter rides to adventure parks to mini-golf, strip malls filled with tacky gift shops, discounted motels and cheap food outlets. So not surprisingly, tourism is now second only to agriculture as South Dakota's main industry.

According to Trip Advisor, a visit to DAHL's Chainsaw Art is one of the top ten things to do in Keystone, South Dakota....just so happens that my initials are "DAHL", so I would have to agree that this is one of the top attractions....

Still a visit here was definitely worth the almost 1000 mile "Monumental Diversion" as we head to Cody, Wyoming more than 400 miles to the west....

Day 10: Jackson, Wyoming-Rapid City, South Dakota: 530 miles

Day 11: Mt Rushmore & Custer State Park: 130 miles