The Big Trip 9.7.20 - 9.23.20, Part 1 of 9: Devil's Hellstorm to Devils Tower
To preface. This is a trip report about a seventeen day journey that Bridgit and I along with our friends Bob and Dana have just returned from. This journey took us to three national parks, two national monuments and over a dozen scenic byways. This report comes in nine installments. I would not be surprised if some of them get a bit wordy as well. Each post will be packed with photos. I would also highly encourage you to try to view this on the largest screen possible. Thank you.
The decision to embark on this journey during this time was based on a lot of research, emails and phone calls. We knew the rules for each of the five states we visited and while some states, cities and individuals exhibited varying levels of caution, we tried to the best of our ability to do our part to stay safe and keep others safe.
In the early morning on Labor Day, September 7th, Bridgit and I in the Navibahn with our Corolla hitched behind and Dana And Bob with their View and a motorcycle on the back headed east on Highway 2. This would be the more scenic and less crowded route than I-90 over Stevens Pass, across the mighty Columbia at Wenatchee, up onto the high mesas and across through Coulee City to Spokane. There we would connect to I-90 for the drive through the Idaho panhandle to St. Regis, Montana where we would spend our first night. We use NOOA to check the weather every chance we get and so we knew it would probably be a gusty day near Coulee City with possible blowing dust. There was an active fire much further up near Omak so a little smoke wouldn’t surprise us. All was well until we left Orondo to climb up out of the Columbia and onto the mesas. We could see some blowing dust up there as we climbed. Once on the top of the mesas it became increasingly dusty and the winds began to howl. Visibility got worse. About halfway across the mesas we were forced to turn around due to a new fire up ahead. We didn’t want to try to go around it to the north because of the fires up there so our only alternative was to drive back the way we came to the Columbia and then head south to I-90 before continuing east. As we drove back towards the river conditions continued to get worse. Smoke was really making driving a challenge and the winds were up to forty miles an hour with even stronger gusts.
We finally made it to I-90 at George but conditions down there weren’t much better than where we had just been. Driving east, speeds would vary on the interstate due to going in and out of dense storms of smoke, ash and dust. The Navibahn was just caked with grime and I didn't dare try the wipers or it would have smeared beyond the ability to see anything at all. Sometimes visibility would drop to zero and you would just have to crawl along and hope for a break. Just east of Ritzvlle as huge wind gusts blew tumbleweeds and dirt across the highway in front of me traffic had come to a dead halt. Luckily I was was going slow enough to stop with no problem but I was terrified someone could plow into Bob and Dana who were behind us. Things got pretty scary here. We were completely boxed in with fires exploding all around the area (we heard later that fifty-eight new fires started that day in a matter of hours) at a dead standstill in a hurricane dust bowl storm. We had no idea if fires were right over the next hill or what was going on. After about fifteen minutes somehow the far left lane slowly began to crawl forward so I muscled my way in there and we soon popped out and were able to move again, although only extremely slowly. In a clearing we saw that the westbound lanes with all the Labor Day returnees had suffered a huge pileup right in the teeth of the storm. Traffic going westbound stretched for miles and then suddenly no cars at all. They had closed the interstate westbound. When we passed the exit that forced them to funnel off, another traffic backup went for even a longer stretch of miles.By the time we hit Spokane things began to clear up enough to drive normally. Extremely frazzled but happy to be alive, we made it to St. Regis with no further issues.
Day two was just a driving day. It’s a big country. We drove I-90 east through Montana and dropped into Sheridan, Wyoming for the night. Along the way Dana navigated us to a really great RV car wash bay and we washed all the grime from the first day off the RVs. The next day was my birthday and we celebrated in a spectacular setting. From Sheridan it is just a couple of hours to get to Devils Tower National Monument. Bridgit and I got all excited when we got our first glimpse of the tower off in the distance. She even downloaded Close Encounters of the Third Kind to watch (which we did later in the trip). The first two days were really just getting from home to here. From here on out though it would be non-stop excitement and things to see and do.
Bob and Dana had been to Devils Tower before but this was new to Bridgit and me. Everything on this trip would be new to us. We had always wanted to see this amazing tower so we ate a quick lunch and headed off in the Corolla for the entrance. The park campground was closed but I had picked a little place called Devils Tower View and it indeed had a killer view of the tower right from your kitchen window in the RV and only three miles from the entrance gate. There was a full parking lot at Devils Tower in the early afternoon but my birthday mojo had someone pull out right in the front row by the entrance.
Devils Tower from our campground
Devils Tower has several designated trails and we wanted to see the tower up close and personal so we took the Tower Trail. This is a 1.1 mile loop around the base of the tower and is paved the whole way. It was fascinating to see the columns and the debris piles below. High, high above we watched lots of different parties climbing the tower.
On the Tower Trail
Tower Trail
Wall climbers
More wall climbers
Two fair damsels
Now growing up in Denver, I’ve driven by the buffalo herd near Evergreen a million times but I had never seen a buffalo “in the wild”. So imagine my delight when we come up the hill out of the monument and I see a couple of bison standing on the top of the hill right off the road. Great! We got out and I was able to move up the road to position my new big burly buddy right smack dab in front of the tower. Birthday mojo? Whatever, I felt like I was off to a great start on the photography.
Tower of Power
I really enjoyed the Tower Trail but I was pretty amped up for positioning myself to shoot the sunset on the tower. After an early dinner, I set off on my own back to the monument. No one was even at the gate so I just drove in. None of the trails in the monument seemed to give me what I was looking for which was a clear view of the tower from a bit further away (but closer than our campground) on the west side of the tower. Driving along the almost empty road I found a little turnout just big enough for one car. Across the road was a hill so I grabbed my camera gear and hoofed it up. It opened up at the top to a treeless ridge with a commanding view of the tower. It was my dream spot and since there was no trail up there I was completely alone. I just sat up there for a couple of hours and watched the sun go down before heading back to camp. It was really a beautiful evening.
Met this little guy in the campground.
The second installment awaits.