Wyoming!

Blog #9

After we drove through Yellowstone National Park, we exited the east side into Wyoming. This has to be the most rugged landscape I've ever seen! We found Three Mile Campground just outside the park.  For $15 a night, it was a great deal, and even comes with metal bear boxes to store your food in. Grizzlies are in the area, and the Forest Service requires hard-sided trailers if you stay here. I roasted some marshmallows to keep them safe :) However, there is no cell phone service, and only vault toilets.

In the morning, there was ice on the dogs' water, so it's definitely time to head towards the tropics. As we left, we also noticed that the nearby Buffalo Bill State Park Campground looked good also.

Does anyone else see a giant foot in the above photo?

I don't know who put the Big Boy out here west of Cody, but this made my day!

The drive from Yellowstone to Cody is breathtaking. But shortly after Cody, the land starts to level out until it's almost completely flat, and oil jack pumps start to appear. Don't worry: if you really miss the mountains as you travel east, the Bighorns are coming up. 

John thought this would be a good time for me to learn how to drive while towing our 29' trailer. It took a bit getting used to, but I drove it from Basin all the way to the top of the Bighorns! I'm glad I let John drive on the way down: there are some scary escape ramps and cables if you loose your brakes on this 8% grade!

We continued on until we got to the Belle Fourche River Campground at the base of Devil's Tower. (I'm writing this in 2022, and this is still one of our favorite places!). This campground has no electrical hookups or showers, but we love it. For $20 a night, you can have an incredible view of the famous monolith, see deer, visit a nearby prairie dog town, listen to the volunteers tell informative stories, and sleep under some of the starriest skies around. 

The best part about Belle Fourche River Campground is that you can walk from your campsite to the trail that leads to the base of Devil's Tower, circle it, and return back to camp in a few hours.

Hundreds of turkey vultures must nest here!

This is a sacred place for many Native Americans, and you can see prayer cloths. 

You can get a permit to climb Devil's Tower, like this brave soul up above! Yes, they are smart to climb up the shady side!

Another bonus of our campground: it is home to artist Junkyu Muto's sculpture "The Circle of Sacred Smoke", one of three in his International Peace Project. It makes a beautiful frame for the tower!

Our day ended with the Big Dipper settling right over the tower, surrounded by a million stars. The next day we packed up and headed into South Dakota!

Join us for our next adventure in "South Dakota”!