Wonderful Wyoming

July 19, 2015
Living in Colorado for close to 25 years gave me the opportunity to explore almost every inch of The Colorado Rocky Mountains. I did a lot of tent camping throughout the Rockies. Because there was so much ground to cover in Colorado, I never really went to Wyoming, even though I found some of the most beautiful parts of Colorado up North near the Wyoming border.

Ten Sleep Canyon is a real find on our trip

So, I came to Wyoming with a bias. Because Colorado had so much to offer, I thought of Wyoming as second rate. Plus, the drive through Wyoming on Interstate 80 can be boring. However, those old biases were shattered as we saw an amazing Wyoming on our trip.

After we left Yellowstone, we traveled east on beautiful two-lane highways. We went through the incredible Bighorn National Forest and Ten Sleep Canyon. It blew us away. It features amazing white and red sandstone rock formations. Dolly climbed the steep incline of the canyon up to 9,666 feet with no problem.

Main Street in Buffalo, Wyoming

What goes up must come down. Coming down the other side, there were warnings for big rig drivers about sharp, steep turns. Low gear was certainly our friend coming down the hill. At the bottom was the lovely town of Buffalo, Wyoming, home of the A&E television series Longmire. While we were staying there, there were parades and activities as part of the annual Longmire Days celebration.

Dolly sits under Devils Tower

After spending a couple nights in Buffalo, we headed to Devils Tower, home of our country's first national monument. We camped right at the base of it. We went to hike the trail to the top to see the landing strip for UFOs, but alas, we couldn't take our dogs on the hike. One of those National Park rules which continues to limit what we can and cannot do on this trip. The least they could do is offer some kind of dog care for all of us travelers who have our dogs with us. Some RV campers leave their dogs in the RV all day while they go enjoying the sites. Even though our boys would be fine, I don't like the idea of leaving them alone all day. Possibly we'll find a dog sitter solution as we continue our travels.

Devils Tower is an amazing site.

At night, after watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind, we sat out in the stillness of the night. It was so quiet, even the ringing in my ears subsided to enjoy the quiet. And looking up into the clear night moonless sky, we had the entire universe all around Devils Tower. We thought this might be the time that the aliens return and take on a new crew of recruits, but it was not to happen. Instead, we looked deep into the Milky Way, and because of the clear night mountain air, we could see the depth of space. The air was warm so we could lay back and watch for the longest time and even witness a few falling stars.

After a few nights at the amazing Devils Tower, we headed into the Black Hills of Wyoming and into South Dakota. To my surprise, the hills are not black at all. The ones I saw are green, as there has been quite a bit of moisture here to bring the earth alive. It was a beautiful drive and we now find ourselves outside Custer, South Dakota. We'll spend the next few days exploring more of the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore.