2017 Road Trip - Custer State Park / Mount Rushmore / Devils Tower / Cody, WY (Days 5-7)

So we hobbled into Custer State Park, after a rough day, get to our campsite at near dark and the WINDS are blowing some 20-30 MPH. I get the girls out of the car, they are all freezing, and get them moving to help me get the camp set up, and dinner in everyone’s bellies. It was too windy for anyone to want S’Mores, so we decided to rush over to see the lighting ceremony. I heard quite a few less than stellar reviews of Mt. Rushmore, but we really enjoyed it. We took in the video, the museum enough to get the girls through the Jr. Ranger Program. When Mt. Rushmore is lit up, it simply has a different feel than day-time photos that you see. For me it is hard not to feel a little more patriotic seeing George, Thomas, Teddy and ol’ Honest Abe chiseled in granite, brightly lit up and looking out over the Dakota landscape. By the end of the day the kids were delirious with exhaustion and fell asleep in the car ride home.

Although I had never heard of Custer State Park, I stumbled across it while looking for a place to camp around Yellowstone. In all our adventures, we have never come across a State Park quite like it. The park itself is quite large and it has vast differences in topography from large granite spires, to rolling prairie land that seems to go on forever. They seem to run it more like a large national park, with programs for kids and adults at various points through each day. In the park we saw tons of wildlife: Prairie Dogs, Turkey, Burros, Elk, Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, Pronghorn (antelope), and their gigantic herd of Bison. During our evening tour of their wildlife loop, we became trapped in a Bison Jamb, with Bison crossing the road immediately in front of and behind our car – the kids were bouncing with excitement.

Between staying up late the first night, being stuck in a windstorm, the 2nd night of camping was a little warmer and a little more enjoyable. That said it was time to pack up and hit the road to Cody, WY with a short stop at Devils Tower. While we had a couple of decent days camping we really pushed the kids hard and we were looking forward to a night indoors. We woke up packed early, got breakfast in our tummies, and then pushed two hours up the road, across the boarder into Wyoming (another new state) to Devils Tower.

Devils Tower is a sight to behold pushing seemingly out of the ground from nothing. Turns out that in actuality, it is likely that the entire structure was underground and was created by magma pushing up to the surface of the earth. Looking up from the valley below it is difficult to imagine how far the prehistoric ground was above our heads. Thankfully, you can print the Devils Tower Jr. Ranger books off in advance, so the girls completed them during the quick drive up. After stopping in the Visitors Center to do the swearing in, we made are way up and around the base of Devil’s Tower. The hike was a good 1.7 mile hike for everyone to stretch their legs. On the trail we saw a few Mule Deer and some chipmunks native to the area. We also saw a couple of rock climbers looking to summit the tower, easing their way up the rock face. After a quick bite to eat, we were back in the car and headed west across Wyoming.

Wyoming is massive! Tons of land, and very few people. There are expanses of both open range, and rocky crags. We did stay on Scenic HWY 16, which has an amazing stretch through Bighorn National Forrest. All the rocky outcroppings have signs indicating how old the rock is and when it was formed. I believe the oldest rock we saw was 3B yrs old. Oh yea – the snow! We went over one pass around 9,000 ft where there was still snow on the ground. It wasn’t like we were not expecting to see snow covered peaks, in June, we just didn’t think we would get that close. The middle sections of the state were the most desolate. After a brief scare that we would have to hoof it for gas, we rolled into .... Basin, WY with 15miles of gas in the tank. I am pretty sure we could have lived on the edge and made it to Greybull, but the girls made me stop.  We discovered that the lack of people makes it tough when you are traveling on highways, with long stretches between towns, and you realize you should have stopped sooner for gas. Smallest town we came through was the town of OTTO, WY (POP 50), yea. . . they didn’t have a gas station. Around 8PM we had finally made it to Cody, WY. Julia watched the girls and I headed off to do laundry, restock our provisions, and clean off the windshield which was a disgusting mess, ravaged by insect carcasses from our 1300 mile journey. We were road weary and exhausted from the trek, so we shut the blinds and opted out of our original plans to get to Yellowstone early, but excited for the next leg of our journey.

Happy Trails!!