Devils Tower, Wyoming, & South Dakota

Travel Day from North Dakota to Sundance, Wyoming. The drive was nice and mostly along a state highway. We started seeing some mini mountains. The fields are grass, not farmed, and we did see some cows grazing. We passed a sign for the turn off to the center of the country. The center of the continental US is Lebanon, KS but this place here includes Alaska and Hawaii. It is a dirt road for about 8 miles and we didn’t dare take HOWE (footnote 1) down there not knowing of conditions and turn arounds. Kevin & I were here in the Black Hills, Custer State Park, and Badlands back in 2023. As we pulled into this campground, Bridget greeted us at the check in office. Richard and Bridget’s site is right next to ours. Later all four of us went to the Crook County Museum. Their website said they are open but we got there and a posted sign said they are closed Sat & Sun. They need to update their hours on their website. 

There is a little park-like area, here in Sundance, WY, with a statue of The Sundance Kid. Concrete sign on the ground said, “Harry Longabaugh, bank robber and train heist criminal, got his nickname here because it was the only jail he ever sat in. His sentence was 18 months for stealing a horse.” 

Bridget found there is a geocache here. We looked and looked. The hint was you need a long skinny arm. Of course, the king of geocaching, Kevin, found it. It is a micro, tiny round piece that with a magnet was attached to Sundance Kid’s bottom. LOL Kevin even had to use his leatherman to get the paper out for Bridget to sign her name. 

Next we went to Vore Buffalo Jump. This is a natural sinkhole and Native American tribes would use this to  drive buffalo in to capture them. This was before they had horses. There are many bones at the bottom. We chose not to pay to go into the building to see the bones but we were able to walk around the top. 

Our last stop of the day was at the Wyoming Welcome Center. This place was a nice huge building. Lots of displays, TVs with captioned videos throughout the room, and lots of destination information. Back home (footnote 2) Bridget gave us pop can cozies that she crocheted in my favorite colors – yellow and burgundy. So sweet. She also gave me a little magnet sign that says, “Friends, like quilts, give comfort and warmth through life.” Very kind.

The reason Kevin and I planned this part of our travel to here was because we hadn’t been to Devils Tower National Monument. I knew from the national park service website that the park was very busy and they even had a stop light set up where you would have to wait for a car to leave and a parking space to open up. Knowing that, we left on Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. Bridget drove us in their jeep. At the Welcome Center yesterday she had picked up Wyoming Bingo page. So it was the front seats vs the back seat. Richard and I won! 🙂 (For the rest of the day my eyes would find WY flags, bales of hay, etc. HA) 

Driving up to Devils Tower National Monument you would see the beautiful hills and then up jets the rock formation. Thankfully, we were about the only ones on the road. We were able to get a parking spot easily. We were there a little bit before the visitor center opened so we did the hike.  This place, let me tell you, is in the top 6-10 favorite national park for both of us!

The word to describe it is “incredible.” Nothing like you see in the pictures, it is better. You see 6 and 7 sided columns and you can see where the columns start at the base at a slight angle and then turn upward. The boulders that have fallen are taller than Kevin in a lot of places. The hike goes around the entire base.

And just as blown away as we were at the tower, turn around and look at the view. It reminds us of the top of Cedar Breaks in Utah. No tall mountains here but hilly with a few trees and a river below. Pasture land everywhere you look. We saw some deer on both sides of the asphalt walking path. Quite a few birds catching the breeze. Today wasn’t windy at all but you can sure tell which way the wind blows because all the trees are slightly bent over. By the time we go to the visitor center, oh boy, the entire area was crowded. As we headed out we saw at the stop light vehicles lined up and backed up more than 50. I don’t know if they will ever get in, and this was before 11:00 a.m. So glad we came early. 

There was a spot that I wanted a picture and Bridget pulled over. Richard and I sit in the back, the jeep is only 2 doors so it is difficult to get in and out. I asked Kevin to take a picture for me. And then, I laughed and said, “OH, just hold my iPhone out the window and over the top of the jeep and I can do remote camera on my Apple Watch.” He did and it was so funny. I can see through the view and would say to turn this way or that way. Bridget had gotten out and she took a picture of Kevin’s arm out the window with my iPhone. She had no idea what was going on and it looked very funny. HA Got a good picture!

Happy Labor Day! Bridget & Richard rode with us in our truck. We left at 8:30 a.m. and wanted to first go to Black Hills National Cemetery before it got too hot. This is the national cemetery Kevin and I saw back in 2023 and we were so surprised there was a national cemetery in South Dakota! Back then we hadn’t paid attention and didn’t know there are so many. The other day there were 5 photo requests for Find A Grave (footnote 3) but since then someone else had fulfilled them. But the other evening I spent almost 3 hours scrolling through the memorials, by plot, finding ones that didn’t have pictures. There are over 35,000 buried here and 791 needed photos. I put together my list of 50. The guys hung out in the truck and we started at the columbiums. I had them in order on my paper and we got them finished up quickly. OH, I just love doing this. I gave Bridget a copy of the paper so she could do some and I could, too. Then we went to the headstones. I continue to feel it is an honor to add the photos to the website.

Kevin and I had been to Deadwood back in 2023 and it was fun to see again. First time exploring it for Richard and Bridget. We had lunch and then walked and checked out some of the shops. The area is so cool with so many buildings still intact and in use. Bridget said she hadn’t seen so many buildings in such great condition being used and built in the 1800s. 

Next we headed down Spearfish Canyon, a real beauty! The water fall did have water flowing even this late in the season. 

One day Bridget and I went to Crook County Museum. (Kevin was working and Richard was proctoring a ham radio test.) The museum is in the old high school and cost $5.00. Neither of us saw any information on why and how the town of Sundance got started. But I knew ahead of time Sundance was a trading post. Another display showed the Pioneers of Crook County cookbook that had a bullet hole through it. An on-coming driver was mad at the postal driver because he didn’t dim his lights. The year? 1981! LOL We saw quite a bit about Harry Longabaugh aka The Sundance Kid. The courtroom he was in is set up there with the original furniture. I didn’t know about a “fire cache” where the fire fighters would put their equipment in. I saw a map of a cattle drive that went from Texas through Abilene, TX, Dodge City, KS, North Platte, NE, here, and then farther north. So fun because Kevin and I have been to these places. 

Next we went to Mount Moriah Cemetery for Find A Grave. Oh boy, did we go jeeping! The GPS showed 1 mile but 7 minutes; how can that be? We quickly learned. Very rough dirt road that has been washed out many times. Sign says it isn’t maintained and we said, duh! It has 1400 memorials. We parked up a ways and then I started to walk to the edge and Bridget took a few steps and there was there photo request! The person died in 2023. The other 4 photo requests were people who were born in the 1800s early 1900s. We walked most of the cemetery and didn’t find them, not even the last names. 

Bridget and I really enjoy playing games. My new favorite is one she taught me called Qwirkle. We played it…a lot. HA We also played Dutch Blitz which is a game I grew up playing. We played it…a lot, too. Other games included Trekking, Ticket to Ride (2 varieties), and Qwixx.

Bridget & Richard left on Thursday. It was so fun having them “stalk” us and have them join us for 3 of the last 5 weeks camping. After putting the blog together and catching up on many computer things I got a book from the library called, The Summer of 1876. It not only talks about Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, but also what was going on in the US that year: national league baseball started, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Black Hills, Kearney, MO, Dodge City, Abilene, TX, etc. We have been to each site that has been talked about, so far, or will this next week so it is doubly awesome!

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country.

2. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.

3. Find A Grave – https://www.findagrave.com/about