Scenic Loop Drive to Devil’s Tower National Monument

I had hoped to be in Wyoming longer to see a bit more of the eastern area of the state. However, with all the repair downtime combined with our change in plans to head back east to help our daughter with her pre wedding events, we have had to cram in a lot in a very the short amount of time while here in Rapid City SD. So today I told Sharon get ready for a long day and a long drive…

Our target was Devils Tower in Wyoming, a bucket list item for me. I have always regretted not visiting the tower when I lived in Rapid City. Along the 200 plus mile loop we will see many other places where I used to “play.”

Our first stop was in Spearfish SD a town I spent some time in but the real treat there is Spearfish Canyon (especially n the fall) but we will see that on the way back. Our second stop was to see the famed Sturgis SD where all the bikers in America, or so it seems, will descend upon in a mere few weeks for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally starting August 2nd. This town sure has changed since I was last here in the mid-70’s…. many, many more mega-bars!

We left Sturgis to enter Wyoming once again and after a nice scenic drive we had our first glimpse at the “Extra-terrestrial” Devils Tower. There was a short line into the park and we drove the three miles up to the trailhead where we luckily scored a parking spot. We donned our hiking boots and although I wanted to do the 2.8 mile lower loop around Devil’s Tower we opted for the 1.9 mile upper loop due to the time. What a fabulous hike it was with great views from various angles of what is revered by the Lakota Indians as a spiritual place. We can see why after our hike…

Leaving Devil’s Tower we headed back east and stopped in Deadwood SD another town that has changed a lot but at least kept the old town feeling it always had. It is definitely a tourist centered town now with lots of shops and several casinos. We did take a small break to visit one casino and let’s just say we left a small donation to help support their economy.

From Deadwood we drove down Spearfish Canyon. What I like most about this place is the change from mostly Ponderosa Pine to species of fir and spruce typically found at higher elevations. We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls which we thought was apropos since our daughter was that day having her bridal portraits taken back in Raleigh NC.

Another long drive back into Rapid City and our day seeing lots of sights we stopped in at great little spot called Paddy O’Neill’s for their Sunday all-day half priced drafts. There we enjoyed a nice Deschutes Fresh Hopped IPA…. A perfect ending to an eventful day…

NOTE: We are in Wall South Dakota this morning but leave today for Fort Thompson SD for a couple of days…

Goodbye Colorado (FINALLY) and Hello Wyoming…

Well we “think” we are finally repaired so it was time to leave Colorado. Before leaving I tried turning the key in the ignition about one HUNDRED times in the RV to see if the gauges worked. Why?  Before repairs it would fail about 1 in 8 tries so seeing no failure in 100 tries I think it may actually be fixed.

We left the Freightliner dealer and headed north barely crossing onto Wyoming where our first stop was at Terry Bison ranch RV Park.It is a Passport America Park with half off the stay but this park only honors it one night and we wanted to stay two. So one night was 24 and one night 48 and with tax it averaged $39.60 a night… definitely not worth it!!! However we wanted to explore Cheyenne Wyoming so we bit the bullet anyway.

We hoped to explore the capitol building but alas… it was being refurbished and won't open till mid 2019. After discovering this we wished we had only stayed one night especially given the cost of staying the second night. Oh well.

The next day we drove into Cheyenne to explore a bit and were somewhat disappointed with the town not taking more advantage of its rich history. We did walk around the town  to explore a bit and ended up at the Depot Plaza where we found a nice little brewery which was a bit different. As we walked in we saw a hostess who said, “you need to see me before going in”. She explained she needed a credit card so that she could give us a special card which would record the number of ounces of beer we consumed.

Armed with our card we walked in and could see that there were several taps with a chalk board beside it describing the beer and the corresponding tap number. There were several sizes of glasses to grab and once a choice is made, visitors pour their own beer by placing their card above the chosen tap.  While pouring a display showed how many ounces you poured. Voila!  Pretty clever!

I have seen this for wines before but never beer. It was fun tasting as much as we wanted to taste. We did find a favorite beer which was a Mango IPA and it was very good. We sat at the bar where we noticed a sign with the happy hour specials and half off growlers caught our eye! With the special a 64 ounce growler of our favorite beer would be only $6.00… so we took home two!

The next day we headed north to a small town called Lingle Wyoming where we found another Passport America Park called Pony Soldier RV Park  It was only $15 per night for full hookups and was a much nicer park than the last one we were at.  It would just be a one night stay and our plan there was to visit several historical sites.

First up was the Fort Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Fort Laramie WY. What a cool fort it was and although it reminded me of one we visited in Texas, this one had been better restored. We walked around the entire site reading all the historical plaques with great information and also enjoyed the rooms which were reconstructed with period appropriate furniture. Very cool!

Next we drove over to Guernsey WY to see Register Cliff State Historic Site  What makes this so interesting is that it is “historical graffiti” left on a sandstone cliff from travelers on the Oregon Trail. Lots of cool old graffiti but unfortunately there is modern graffiti competing with it.

On the way back we stopped at another historical site called the Oregon Trail Ruts also near Guernsey WY. Here there is a trail over to  some “ruts” in the sandstone from wagon travelers frequenting the Oregon trail. So frequent that their wagons dug more than 5 feet into the sandstone. It felt really neat being there “in the moment” realizing so many explorers such as us had passed through this area…

After two stops we have seen no RV error codes nor had any gauge failures so we feel safe to forge ahead with our plan to visit South Dakota! It sure feels good to be on the road again…..

NOTE: We are now in Lingle Wyoming then later today we move over to Rapid City South Dakota…

Yellowstone and Teton NP Loop Drive…

With a few days left here in Rexburg, Idaho we decided that we should make a trip over to Yellowstone National Park or Teton National Park. When I looked at the mileage it looked like the thing to do was to go see both parks. This would be our largest one day loop trip ever but  the allure of seeing two spectacular National Parks in the same day convinced us to think, why not?

I woke Sharon way earlier than she would prefer and we hit the road going north to West Yellowstone. We entered Yellowstone and the visual extravaganza began with one scenic vista after another. We have visited both of these parks in the past prior to buying our motorhome so we were delighted to have the opportunity to revisit such grand places.

Needless to say we didn’t do any extensive hiking and we mostly stopped to see things we missed the last time we visited these parks. Therefore we completely avoided Old Faithful and enjoyed mostly the outer reaches of the parks. As a result we were treated with eye dropping Mammoth Hot Springs as well as gorgeous valleys and a splendid array of wildlife. We even saw what appeared to be a young adolescent black bear wandering and munching his way through a flower filled meadow. It appeared to us that he/she was eating the flower heads off all the plants that were blooming. Indeed fun to watch…

With over 300 miles of a long and extended loop we saw a lot of National Parkland and it was interesting to see how the landscape was responding to the over 700,000 acres burned back in 1988. The park looked pretty good and it appears as if the vegetation is filling in rather nicely.We also saw deer, elk and buffalo as well as one lone Bald Eagle and lots of Geese and Swans. After our lengthy drive through Yellowstone and through the eastern part of the Tetons we decided it best to visit Jackson Hole where we stopped at the Q Roadhouse & Brewing Co.  We sat at the bar enjoying their complimentary roasted peanuts and we could hear live music drifting in from the patio.

As we still had over 100 miles to get back home we had one beer with our tasty peanuts. We met a really nice couple from Florida and really wanted to stay to chat with them some more but it was time to head west… As we made it over Teton Pass we stopped at a turnout to enjoy the view of the Jackson Valley below. We pulled out our chairs to  pause and enjoy the  magnificent vista .

As we were driving through Victor, Idaho I saw a sign for the Grand Teton Brewery so I figured we could grab dinner there… We pulled into the place and noticed all the patrons lounging in Adirondack chairs near a food truck vendor. After all the driving we did we decided to have one more tasty beverage and ordered up some really good tacos with quinoa salad as a side. We relaxed in our chairs outside on he grassy lawn for about an hour enjoying the views of the mountains and watching the locals enjoy the day…

We made the drive back without any issues and after our 13 hour day we slept like babies that night. We left Rexburg this morning and are heading to a park near Dillon, Montana where we will only spend one night…