2018.09.30 - Garryowen, MT to Devils Tower, WY

09.30.2018 - Garryowen, MT to Devils Tower, WY - Got about 180 miles to do today, so on the road before 10:00am. Decided to take 212 east from the town of Crow Agency towards the Powder River, turning south on 112 at the town of Alzada. Skip, the Owner at The 7th Ranch RV Resort, recommended we go that way when I talked to him this morning. The forecast for the Black Hills area showed nice weather after today for a couple of days, but more rain and even snow towards the end of the week and weekend. That pretty much made our case for turning south after Devils Tower National Monument instead of heading east towards Rapid City, SD as originally planned.

The route took us east out of the Crow Indian Reservation and into the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Lots of open space with very few towns. Since we were unsuccessful at finding a decent grocery store around Garryowen, we kept our eye open as we passed thru the reservation land, but we really didn't see anything. Just outside the town of Lame Deer, we started running into snow flurries as we crossed a couple of small mountain ranges in the Custer National Forest. You couldn't really call them "mountain passes", but they must have been known for snow because there were designated "chain-up" pull-outs along the road.

It's starting to snow ....

And is getting worse as we climbed the grade

Luckily, the snow was short-lived and disappeared as soon as we dropped down the other side of the mountain grade. At the town of Brodus, MT, we crossed the Powder River and found a small grocery store that had all we needed. It was still cold and rainy and we commented that it would be nice to see some sunshine again. An hour stop for grocery shopping, then lunch in the parking lot and we were on our way. Thankfully, weather seemed to be getting better. At the small town of Alzada, we turned south on Hwy 112 and headed into Wyoming along the Belle Fourche River (translates to Beautiful Fork). 

Once we headed south we were climbing slightly in elevation and the landscape started changing from high plain sage to more greenery and more trees, mostly pine, but lots of oaks as well. At the town of Hulett, WY, we started to see the red-rock bluffs along the Belle Fourche River as we got closer to Devils Tower and it wasn't long before we could see the tower, itself, sticking up in the distance. 

Getting greener with more trees as we head south

Red rock along Belle Fourche River, Hulett, WY

Look, it's Devils Tower. Where are the Aliens!

We basically had two choices of where to stay around Devils Tower. We could pick the KOA with all its hook-ups and amenities (including a nightly free screening of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind") or we could dry-camp in the National Monument's own campground. We chose the campground and that was the right choice without a doubt. The campground was like a park in the trees and, at 3:30pm, it was still nearly empty. We drove the two loops and picked a pull-thru site with a direct view of the tower. Nice and flat and really quiet (I think we were the only ones around with a generator).

Devils Tower campground almost empty

View of Devils Tower from the campground 

Tomorrow, we'll make a run up to the Visitor Center, then will hit the road south towards Douglas, WY where we will be staying in the KOA.