A 47th Year To Never Forget 🎉

Day 39- We awoke to the fully lit view of Devils Tower waiting for us in the distance. After a quick cup of coffee we were headed to the park.

Once we got there we were amazed by the massive height of the tower. We viewed the tiny specks of crazy and talented climbers scouring up the side of the rockface. (Amazing- but too brave for me folks! 🙌)

We decided to take the long trail around the base of the tower- which came with some breathtaking views, but unfortunately took us further away from the tower. It was a hot day, and Laura was a cookin’ in the heat. But, she strongly persevered around the loop until we made it about 3/4 of the way around. There I spotted a cut through to the shorter loop above, and it would get us much closer to the tower. So we cut through and walked up to the base of the tower to touch the rubble surrounding it. Afterwards we headed back down the easy trail to get Laura a much needed rest from the beating sun and some nice cold water.

After the amazing venture of the tower we were leaving Wyoming and headed into South Dakota. That evening we arrived at Mount Rushmore. In the main walkway there was a flag from each state- and the only one tightly wrapped up and not showing was Alaska’s flag. Alaska Represent 😆!

We walked the trail around the base of the mountain, and I even found a random rock face that looked like a side shot of George Washington! (That’s what I thought, but feel free to give me your opinion)

Since we had arrived late enough in the evening, we found out that every night at 9 pm they do a ceremony where they light up the faces of Mount Rushmore. Laura and I decided we would wait out the light and watch the event.

We decided on a spot from the walking path at the base of the mountain to watch the lighting, wanting to be as close as possible.

After the event we headed out to eat a quick dinner and get back on the road. We put Wyoming on the map (seeing how we had now left it) that night.

The next morning we would be at the Wind Caves- so we chose an open parking lot near the park entrance.

At about 3 in the morning I was awoken by a burrowing noise in the back of the camper. I opened the cabinet under the sink and tapped the area, then went outside to observe what was going on. Maybe it was because I was still groggy and out of it from waking up so abruptly, but it was like a crazy bad dream outside. The beam of my flashlight illuminated the field of prairie dog mounds we had parked by, and under the Ohana I found mounds of fresh poop all around. A mouse shot out of the back of the Ohana from underneath, and ran up behind the front tire. This was the fastest mouse I had ever seen! 😲 Then it shot out into the parking lot, where I shined my flashlight at it to try and scare it off. This backfired and it ran right back up into the engine of the Ohana. I ran around to the other side in hopes it might have gone that way, only to find a huge toad hopping along through the dark on the other side. 😵

Laura came up with the great idea of running the engine to scare the mouse out- so we fired her up and revved the engine a little. Then we placed an LED lantern by the back of the rig for the night to ward off any more nocturnal creatures from coming close. After a long time I was finally able to nod off again- and we heard no more noises that night.

The next morning of Day 40- this was the day of Laura’s Birthday! We awoke to the field next to us teeming with prairie dogs, including the grass median to the parking lot. Here is a few pics and videos of the little guys (and gals) in action.

After hanging out watching them for a bit and chatting with a biker gang that stopped by we were headed to the Wind Caves right next door. We ventured the guided tour in the caves for about 2 hours- where we got to see beautiful rock formations.

This particular cave was the only one to have the formations called “box work“, which is best described looking like a honeycomb, in North America.

After our amazing tour of these caves, which was a very different experience than our crawl in the Ape Caves- we were headed back out on the road. This time our destination was one Laura was very excited about; Wall Drug.

Wall Drug is famous because it is a destination in the middle of nowhere at the edge of The Badlands. They have extensive signs plastered all over multiple states, advertising every angle possible to get you to stop there. This made Laura very excited due to the long drawn out anticipation from seeing all this advertising across our drive to get here.

I was surprised, it was a very campy, entertaining, and charming place. It ranged from stores, to entertainment, and everything in between in a surprisingly small footprint for what it contained. We had our fortune told by Zoltar (from the movie Big!), splashed in the musical water spouts, watched the crazy animatronics, and Laura even tamed the mighty and elusive Jackalope! With this fun all finished we had one more goal for the night…

…Well, almost. From our trip of driving across South Dakota some of our wiring for our solar had jostled loose. It didn’t take long to track it down and repair it though. In less than an hour we were happily topping off our battery with solar energy again.

Next we were headed right next door to Wall. We were out here to observe The Badlands, and even in the dusk light they were still a mighty view. It was a little later than we planned, but that turned out to be a good thing. We stood at the canyons edge and enjoyed them in the cool of the evening instead of the blazing heat of the day this area was known for. Though it was a bit dark we still took some pictures, and surprisingly the cameras did an okay job picking up the massive canyons.

Next we would be headed North East. We put in some road time and spent the night at a truck stop on the way towards Minnesota, where we intended to meet up with another school friend of Laura’s. As we drifted off to sleep this put a pleasant end to a truly long and epic few days- and a truly memorable birthday adventure.

Geoff Murphy 7/16/2022