Devil’s Tower

We had initially planned to stay at a campground within view of Devil’s Tower, but when we realized they had a two-night minimum and were very pricey, we opted for the KOA instead. I am so happy we did. Our campsite was as close to the foot of Devil’s Tower as you can get without being in the National Park. Hungry, we found Red Rock Cafe in a nearby town and enjoyed our picnic lunch enjoying the marvelous view from our tent.

They had a lovely deep firepit. Chris soon had a roaring fire blazing high into the night. We saw a car approaching, and Chris joked that they were coming to tell us our fire was too big. When the car stopped, I thought he might be right. Instead, it was a young lady asking if we knew how they handled a late check-in. Chris gave her the information we had. She mentioned that she was a little apprehensive since she was alone. He told her to set up next to us.
Chris offered to help her set up camp, but she was a stealth camper and didn’t have anything to set up. She did, however, have a remarkable whisky and a ukulele.

We invited Kaithlyn to join us at our fire. It was a lovely evening hearing about her adventures and sharing ours. As it turns out, her father had climbed Devil’s Tower as a teenager. He was with a church group. The group leaders were very much not impressed with the conversation he and his friends had as they climbed. Every word they said had echoed down to the rest of the group. They did not invite her father to go on another trip. I thought it was cool that she was visiting the same spot her father had been all those years ago.

A Scary Night

We had contemplated leaving the rain fly off so we would have a view of the Tower from the tent. After checking the weather to see that there was rain in the overnight forecast, we decided against it. I am so glad we did. Sometime in the night, intense winds with rain abruptly awakened us. The winds were so fierce that the tent was collapsing around us. We kept pushing them poles back up, but it seemed like a futile effort. The wind blew so hard that I was concerned for our safety. That is a vast understatement. It was the most frightened I have ever been on any of our camping trips.

Eventually, the wind died down. When I went to the bathroom, I discovered that the rain fly had come completely unhooked (thank goodness for the guy lines), and one of the tent stakes had lifted entirely out of the ground. We were able to put it all back together and finally get some sleep.

There was no evidence of how dreadful the weather had been overnight, other than our soaking wet bag of clothes when morning came. Devil’s Tower was even more stunning in the morning light than it had been the night before. I dried the clothes while we packed everything else up for the final leg of our journey.

When we threw our trash away, Chris discovered a raccoon trapped inside the nearly empty dumpster. I don’t know if he had jumped in, expecting there to be enough trash to be able to get back out or if he had been on the edge of the dumpster and blown in by the wind. Either way, he looked scared and seemed to have no hope of getting out.

We thought if we draped our blanket over the edge of the dumpster, he might be able to get enough traction to climb out. At first, it looked like it might work as he hesitatingly took a step toward the blanket. We left him alone for a few minutes to see if he would climb out, but he did not. Chris cautiously reached his tactical shovel toward the scared creature. The raccoon grabbed the shovel, and Chris was able to pull him out of the dumpster carefully. The poor thing looked so pitiful as he slunk away across the campground.

With the raccoon rescued and our clothes dry, we headed into Devil’s Tower National Park to get an even closer look at the beautiful butte. When we saw how crowded the monument was, we decided against hiking around the base. As we drove out of the park, we saw a flock of beautiful turkeys as well as a field of prairie dogs.

Wyoming

We headed south and could not believe how beautiful the scenery was. Wyoming has to be what they were thinking about when they coined the expression “wide open spaces.” The views were spectacular, with hills stretching out as far as we could see under an exquisitely blue sky full of fluffy white clouds. Breathtaking does not even begin to describe the beauty of what we saw.

Before we turned on to the interstate, we stopped at a gas station. When we saw the gas’s astronomically high price, we decided that we could do better at another station further up the road. We didn’t realize that we would only be going to the next exit and then following a country road for most of the trip through Wyoming. We saw signs indicating a town was only a few miles ahead and thought we would surely be able to find gas. The town turned out to be nothing more than a post office.

I checked (or attempted to) the gas app to see how far we were from a station, but we were so out in the middle of nowhere that we didn’t have data. Our only choice was to continue and hope for the best. I watched as the needle neared empty. Finally, when I thought we were just about to run out of gas, we came into a small town. After that near disaster, we decided always to fill up when we hit 1/4 tank.

I enjoyed driving through Wyoming. The scenery was constantly changing, and every change was beautiful. Our lovely blue sky turned grey and solemn. We could see snow in the mountains in the distance, but we didn’t have enough precipitation to make the drive difficult.

After driving most of the day, we finally arrived at I-25 in Cheyenne, where crazy 60 mph winds greeted us. They were blowing across the road, making driving extremely hazardous. It took all of Chris’s effort and concentration to stay in our lane, especially when passing trucks. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the wind stopped.

Colorado

As we made our way to Denver, I watched the glorious sunset over the Rocky Mountains to the west. I was so happy Chris was driving so I could enjoy the view. After a long day, we stopped for the night in Denver. We had gone from a morning of beautiful warm weather to plummeting temperatures and snow for the evening.

In the morning, we drove the most harrowing hour to Colorado Springs. In South Dakota and Wyoming, moving more than 80 mph didn’t bother me at all. There were very few cars on the road, and it was easy. Driving at that speed through Denver with crazy drivers all around us (not to mention the sudden appearance of a Lifetime cooler in the road) is an entirely different experience. I had a white knuckle grip for most of the trip and was in tears by the time we made it to Colorado Springs, and I wasn’t even the one driving.

We arrived safely at the extended-stay hotel I had booked for the week. I was disappointed in the place. It looked nothing like the pictures advertised. The halls were dirty, the room was sub-par, and there were many less than savory looking characters hanging about. We decided we could make it work for the week. The only redeeming factor was the striking view we had of Pike’s Peak from our window.

I felt a little deflated that our incredible journey had come to an end, but we had a lot to look forward to. When we were in the Badlands, enjoying the stunning mountains around our campsite, Chris turned to me and asked, “Why don’t we just keep going?” In a heartbeat, I answered, “I would love that.”