Day 10 – Friend of the Devil

Devil's Tower
Custer State Park, SD to Cody, WY

We’d told the girls we needed to be on the road by 8:30 if we wanted to keep Devil’s Tower on the itinerary, so that helped get them moving in the morning (Devil’s Tower has Junior Ranger badges!)  We ended up making it by 8:45 – not too bad, considering – and since this was largely because we had to make a stop for ice, we headed for Devil’s Tower, 2 ½ hours away in Wyoming.

Devil’s Tower is awe-inspiring – a huge obelisk of rock thrust up far above anything in the surrounding prairies.  (For people of a certain age, it is most famous for its cameo appearance in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where it is carved out of mashed potatoes.)  It’s sheer rock going straight up some unbelievable distance, but we still saw many climbers (tiny, barely visible in the distance) taking it on.

There’s a 1.5 mile trail that leads all around the base, and also includes a few gorgeous overlooks of the surrounding country.  Nadia was very insistent on going to a ranger program (a requirement for the badge), so she and Bob did that while Zoe, Lanie, and I did the hike.  (I think they missed out but a side benefit is that they can now tell you a lot about turkey vultures.)  The bottom of the tower all around is a huge boulder field, where chunks of the tower have fallen off over time.  There’s not much my kids like better than climbing on rocks, and Zoe made it all the way up to the top of the boulders (where the tower proper started).

Once we left Devil’s Tower, we had about a six-hour drive to our final destination in Cody, WY.  It was a beautiful drive through various different kinds of mountain terrain.  One thing I’d never known was that a lot of the ground here is a rich red color, which contrasts nicely with the dark green pines.  We went through very long stretches without seeing any sign of civilization, then we’d come to a sign that would say something like, “Entering town of Buffalo Dung, pop. 24”.  At one point we crossed over a high mountain pass in the Big Horn mountains.  I checked our GPS out of curiosity and found that we’d gained about a mile in elevation (to over 9000) feet, before dropping down to below 4000 feet again.  The scenery was breathtaking but it was a little hard on the poor old minivan.

We stopped for a quick dinner in some town that at least had a population in the hundreds, and Bob wanted to try a new fast food chain he’d been noticing called “Taco John’s”.  Can anyone out there from the west defend this establishment?  We were a little leery when we found that there was not a soul in the restaurant (despite its being 6:30 at night), and quickly lowered our expectations when we read their special, which was a “meat and potatoes burrito” featuring ground beef with little fried hash brown things and ranch dressing.  I mean, we weren’t expecting a gourmet meal but we also didn’t think it would be somewhat less authentic than Taco Bell.

Anyway, we finally made it to Cody around 9, and set off to find our campground where we’d rented a tipi.  The campground was in the middle of the city, so I’d resigned myself that it would be one of those campgrounds that’s essentially a parking lot, and at first that’s what it appeared to be.  But then we followed the map to the back of the campground, and suddenly the road dropped away beneath us into a series of steep switchbacks leading into a deep ravine behind the campground.  There was a rushing creek behind the tepee, and it felt like we were in the wilderness.  (On the down side, there is a major climb involved in getting to a real bathroom, and we’re not 100% sure the loaded-down van will make it back up that hill.  Stay tuned.)

Traditional Native American shadow puppets in the tipi

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From Bob:                                                                                                           

I don’t know that anyone reading this blog has ever experienced anything quite like these tipis.  They are very odd, stuck down in this hole, nicely secluded from the rest of surprisingly-bustling Cody (except the one streetlight I can see over the canyon rim).   I’m not going to say they’re absolutely authentic – for instance, our first Americans seem wise enough not to have covered the ground inside their tipis with gravel.  Also, there is a metal spike right in the middle of the floor that may have something to do with keeping the tipi top open.  Whatever it’s for, it’s not the kind of thing you want to mistake for a pillow.  The tipi sides don’t reach all the way down to the ground, which is strange.  You lie on the ground –  hopefully not too close to the spike – and you can see the feet of people walking by.

                Those things aside, they really seem to aspire for authenticity.  The poles are wooden and the covering is cloth, and there are two big poles connected to flaps at the top.  This must be indigenous air conditioning, but we can’t figure it out.  We can barely figure out how to close the door flap.  This leads me to think they’re pretty authentic.

                Also, we’re right on the banks of a nice rushing stream, a nice departure from all the dryness we’ve experienced so far on this trip.  It makes a nice noise that will help up sleep, I’m sure.  Though it may also make us have to use the porta-potties (we have to climb back up the hill to reach the regular bathroom) overnight, which is not the most pleasant prospect.