On September 25th we started our journey to South Dakota. The first travel day was a long one for us, 304 miles to the Coeur d'Alene, ID Elks lodge. Here is our campsite:
We finally had Bill's birthday dinner at Beverly's in the Coeur d'Alene resort and their huckleberry soufflé is still quite nice.
September 26th we drove 242 miles to Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, MT. Here is our campsite with a backdrop of some snow covered peaks:
September 27th we decided to not go as far, so we drove 135 miles to Bozeman, MT and stayed at Sunrise Campground, which we last stayed at in August 2003. On the way we had a problem with the speedometer and called Spartan for help. The problem cleared up after five miles and we will get it looked at when we visit Spartan in October.
We shopped at Costco and had a nice meal at Johnny Carinos.
On the 28th we drove 210 miles to 7th Ranch RV Park in Garryowen, MT. On the way we stopped at this rest area:
We did not see any rattlesnakes.
Here is our campsite, we are very close to the Bighorn Battlefield where Custer and most of his troops lost their lives and the battle.
The 29th we were going to stop in Gillette, WY but did not like the campground so we decided to head further east. We had a choice of taking a side trip and staying by Devil's Tower National Monument or going straight to Sundance, WY and staying there. We decided not to make the side trip. Here is our campsite at Mountain View Campground in Sundance, WY after 238 miles. We hadn't been in Wyoming since 2002 and it was Evita's first trip to Wyoming, as if she cared.
While we were setting up the campground owner came over and highly recommended we visit Devil's Tower so we drove 30 miles in the CRV and did just that. Here is a view of Devil's Tower a few miles away:
We took the trail that circled Devil's Tower and took a lot of pictures, here are a few:
People climbing (they are small spots on the above picture):
The view to the south:
There were chipmunks all around but it was getting late in the day and hard to get enough light to get good pictures of them:
The original wooden ladder used early in white people's climbs:
One last large picture:
If we would have camped close by we would have had a couple more hours to explore, but we miscalculated and headed to Sundance. Devil's Tower was worth a visit and would be worth visiting for more than a couple hours in the late afternoon.