Day 30: West Yellowstone, MT to Devil's Tower, WY

Monday July 11

Monday July 11 finds us on the road again.  We have not traveled in six days and it has been wonderful to be based out of one spot.  We are headed to Devil’s Tower, WY which is about 8.5 hours east.  I had a hard time finding a KOA along this route that would be half way between Yellowstone and Mt Rushmore but then I found Devils’ Tower.  It is a little further of a drive than we would like but we only have a 2.5 hour drive the next day.  Scott has done his research and decided we should not take the route I had plotted out (up through Montana to Billings and then south to Devil’s Tower) but rather through Yellowstone and Chief Joseph Scenic Highway.  We got up early and on the road by 8:30 in hopes of getting to Devil’s Tower early.  In fact we had pulled in the lawn chairs, rug and clothesline the night before so they wouldn’t get wet in rain and so they would be all packed.

Our rig on Chief Joseph Scenic Byway!

The drive through Yellowstone is gorgeous and we spotted several bison with their calves moving in the fields.  Stopped to look in the distance at what I thought might be wolves but turned out to be pronghorn running through the fields.  At that point a park ranger drove by and told us about the eagle flying overhead.  He flew overhead for awhile and then a hawk came and started to pester him so the eagle took off.  We drove through Chief Joseph Scenic Byway and arrived at Devi’s Tower KOA at 9:40pm.  We had called ahead and knew the office would be open until 10pm and stopped for McDonald’s dinner along the way. 

The roads took us through 2 mountain ranges (hence the longer driving time).  We drove to the summit of the Chief Joseph Memorial Highway and stopped for lunch at Dead Indian Point.  This is where it is believed that Chief Joseph left an Indian as a scapegoat and he was killed by the US Army.  It is beautiful scenery.  The other mountain pass is through the Bighorn Mountains.  This does not take us to the height in elevation of the earlier drive but does take a long time for all the switchbacks.  It is slow going and tedious driving but we spotted several deer and elk along the road.  There are tons of cattle and horses too- we watch some cowboys steering some cattle into fields from the road.