Day 8: Devils Tower and South Dakota

Howdy, welcome to the real Wyoming

Wyoming is more than just interstate highways and Walmarts. Next stop, Devil’s Tower! Mercifully, the drive was quite short–just over an hour. As we got close, we noticed the local welcoming committee.

It doesn’t get more “Wyoming” than this.

The kids thought this was really cool and had to get a picture before we moved on.

Once we actually arrived at Devils Tower, we started out on the 1.3 mile hike around the base. The kids thought it was really cool and were surprisingly happy to pose for more pictures.

Rocks everywhere. What’s not to like?

As we got to the east side of the tower, more and more big rocks appeared which absolutely required climbing.

Our little scrambler
Finding a great rock cave deserves another picture.
The tower is a popular climbing spot.

On the way back to the RV, we stopped by aptly-named “Prairie Dog Town”, where the rangers had just fed them.

Life is good in Prairie Dog Town.

We’d parked a few miles away from the tower and took the car, just in case there was a shortage of parking. It turns out we could have just taken the RV the whole way.

Reattaching the “dingy car”.

With still plenty of time in the day, it was time to move on to our next state, South Dakota! This was the first new state for all of us.

You’ll never guess what they put on the welcome sign.

Earlier in the day, I’d noticed that Deadwood wasn’t that far off our route, so I suggested we check it out–at least drive through it. We followed the signs to the historic area and figured we probably shouldn’t drive the RV down the main street, but with a combination of laziness and #YOLO attitude, a few minutes later we were doing it.

Pretty sure this is how Wild Bill Hickok rolled into town.

Aside from the annoyed look we got from the trolley driver, it went pretty well.

That was enough Deadwood for us. On to the RV park! About an hour later we, arrived at our stop for the night, the Mount Rushmore KOA at Palmer Gulch. This place is massive–I heard it’s the 2nd largest KOA in the country–with hundreds of spots, and it was almost completely full.

Our spot for the night.

It was getting late, so we wasted no time in finding the pool, so the kids were thrilled again.

Synchronized jumping.
I had to join in, too.

That was about all we could handle, so it was back to the RV and an early bedtime for all of us.

3 Replies to “Day 8: Devils Tower and South Dakota”

  1. Sweet! We were all set to stay at the KOA for our SD trip too but I rescheduled at the last minute for more nights at Custer. Looks like a great time in the pool! Enjoy Custer!!!

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