Prelude -- I have wanted to go to Devils Tower since the movie 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' was
released in 1977. Especially since my friend and his wife moved to Casper in the Spring of 2014. But going to
"the lake" always took precedence. When my friend informed me during our trip to "the lake" in 2024 that he
probably wouldn't go there anymore, I decided that this provided the opportunity for me/us to go somewhere
else. I had also considered going to Jackson/Jackson Hole, but decided otherwise. Some year, I hope to go to
Jackson.
Wednesday, July 30th --
In January that year, my friend bought a new Jayco Jay Feather Air trailer. (It is VERY nice.) He and his
wife had taken two 1-day trips to test it out. So this 5-day trip was going to be THE test. We left Casper a
little after 11am. We drove about five hours to our BLM land campsite. Along the way, we shopped at a
Walmart for about one hour and stopped twice to get gas. (If not for those stops, it would have taken us about
3-1/2 hours.) Regarding the gas, we nearly ran out of it prior to filling up in Gillette. Who would have
thought that a Toyota Tacoma would get only 6-1/2 miles per gallon? While driving, we noticed A LOT
of Harley Davidson motorcycles. The reason was that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota started
that Friday.
We're not sure why, but we ended up driving the long way around the Western edge of the park to get to our
campsite near Devils Tower. My friend said that we took "the scenic route". It was on BLM land and is
referred to as "dispersed camping" -- a phrase that I'd never heard before. (Even though I had camped on
BLM land before.) After settling in, we walked about 100 yards to say 'Hi' to some nearby campers. They
were a couple who were spending about one month visiting various places in Wyoming and Montana. He
stated that he found the campsite via a Website named 'iOutlander'. From their campsite, a person could see
the top half of the Devils Tower -- about five miles away ... as the crow flies. (Refer to the 'Pictures' page for a
photograph of it.) The elevation at the campsite was around 5,000 feet. I later discovered that the iOutlander
Website had been shut down. Bummer.
Regarding that this was a test run of the trailer, it wasn't easy getting the trailer backed into desired positions.
All in all, it took around eight attempts. (This time.) This was the result of a combination of both my friend's
experience and my similar lack of experience. So, my instructions "Turn the trailer's back end to the left" or
"Turn the trailer's back end to the right" could have been better. So, we killed the pain, instead of killing each
other, by immediately drinking some beers after we finally got done parking the trailer.
Thursday, July 31st --
We drove to Hulett. We had some malts at an ice cream parlor. When the woman serving us gave us the
malts, I pointed to my hat and asked her "Have you ever heard of this place -- Borrego Springs?" She said
that she had been there several times because she lived in Downey, CA -- which is in the Los Angeles area -- for
over 50 years and she and her husband had gone to Borrego Springs several times. She was working at the ice
cream parlor there because her daughter, who usually worked there during summers, couldn't do it that year
and her mother covered for her. What are the chances that two people from California would meet in a town
in Wyoming with a population of about 350 people?
Sometime during either the previous night or that day, my friend realized that there were things that he hadn't
brought on the trip. For example, we were going to run out of some foods and could have brought some
additional utensils. Well, that's what happens during a "test trip." So, I created a list during our trip of the
items along with notes about the highlights during the trip -- about which you are reading right now.
We drove to Devils Tower. For all of the many people there, there were only two parking lots -- upper and
lower. The upper parking lot was closer to the visitor center and the trail heads. We got lucky to find a
parking spot -- out of about 40 spots -- because about half of them were filled with motorcycles. (Do you
remember when I mentioned the Sturgis motorcycle event?) So, my friend and I walked the (paved) trail to
the base of Devils Tower. While there, we debated how far we were going to walk. While walking, we crossed
paths with the man and woman who camped near us during the previous night. We asked them how was the
walk and the man pointed out that the 1.3-mile walk around the mountain didn't take very long. So, we went
for it -- especially after I pointed out to my friend that if we can do our typical summer hike that is six miles
long and is at approximately 10,000 feet while carrying 45- to 50-pound backpacks, this would be easy. And it
was. One interesting thing, other than the mountain, was how many foreign languages that we heard people
speaking. Maybe Devils Tower is some sort of internationally-known tourist location. But even perhaps more
interesting than that was that we saw three rock climbers on the "back side" of the mountain. (Refer to the
'Pictures' page for a photograph of them.)
We camped again in the same spot that night. Unfortunately, it was cloudy again and we couldn't do
astrophotography with my friend's Seestar S50 telescope. Well, we would have other chances during the next
two nights during our trip. Interestingly, I noticed that it got clear later that night when I looked out the
trailer's window around 3am. By the way, there were no cities within many miles and it was very dark at
night.
Friday, August 1st --
Today, we planned on doing some more BLM land dispersed camping in the Bighorn Mountains. As we drove
out of our camping area, my friend stopped the truck and said "You should take a picture of that street sign."
The road that we had driven out on was 'Ewing Road'. What are the chances? (Refer to the 'Pictures' page
for a photograph of it.)
We drove through the city of Buffalo to go to our next campsite. While there, we went to a store named Lynn's
Superstore and bought some food and other items. (Interesting -- We bought alcohol in the grocery store. My
friend told me that he couldn't buy liquor in grocery stores in Casper. Maybe it's a county-related issue.)
And, funny -- across the street was a store named 'Prescription Shop'. (Refer to the 'Pictures' page for a
photograph of it.) Afterwards, we drove to our campsite. Along the way, my friend noticed a sign that pointed
out that there were granite hills in the area that were three billion years old, formed during the Precambrian
Period. Msybe I don't remember it, but I don't recall personally seeing anything that old before. (There's a
joke somewhere in there.) We arrived at the Crazy Woman Canyon camping area slightly after 6pm. The
area was full of campers, trailers, RVs, et al, so we proceeded to the next road leading to another BLM land
area. We had difficulty, but we finally found one. (Refer to the 'Pictures' page for the second photograph of
the camper/trailer.)
The refrigerator and freezer in the trailer stopped working. Oh, Boy! Like similar devices, they will
"disengage" when they've dropped to a specified temperature. But this time, they completely stopped. For
too long. There was an error code -- E6 -- on the control panel inside the trailer related to the problem. My
friend determined what it meant and there were three possible reasons for the problem. All of them required
an experienced technician to determine what was/were the problem(s). So, my friend planned to take the
trailer, especially since it was under warranty, to the dealership to fix the problems.
Another unfortunate thing happened. While positioning the four supports in order to brace the trailer, the
teeth/slots on two of the supports got damaged. So, it was necessary to replace those two supports prior to
using the trailer again. Once again, it's a good thing that the trailer was under warranty.
Saturday, August 2nd --
We drove to Tie Hack Lake to go fly fishing, but it was VERY crowded with people. Then, we drove to
Meadowlark Lake but it didn't look accommodating for fly fishing. (The elevation at the lake was around
8,400 feet.) Then, we drove along a very rugged 2-mile dirt road to Tensleep Creek. I was somewhat
concerned about taking this road because we saw only all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) along the 2-mile drive as
opposed to trucks or 4-wheel drive vehicles. Finally, we found a place and fished there. (Refer to the
'Pictures' page for photographs of the creek.) We only fished for about 30 minutes and my friend noticed that
the sky in the West was very dark and that rain might have been heading towards us. So, he caught two fish --
about 8 inches and 10 inches long, we packed up, and we drove out. (Fortunately, the storm turned away from
us and we "survived." But wait ...
We only drove about 1/4 mile and encountered a Ford Escape in the middle of the dirt road. We drove up to it
and found a woman, Dori, with her dog, Simon. She said that she had driven through a dip in the road with
water in it and had hit a rock/boulder in the bottom that was submerged and not visible. "Oh, that explains
the black streak in the road." So, the rock had punctured the oil pan and oil was leaking from it.
Interestingly, the transmission wouldn't engage. (Even though there was no transmission fluid on the ground.)
So, we pushed the vehicle to the side of the road and we gave Dori a ride to nearby Meadowlark Lake. (We
waited outside the restaurant to make sure that she contacted someone to pick her up.) Like I wrote, the road
to Tensleep Creek was a rugged dirt road and a person might get into trouble if -- (1) They weren't driving a
sufficiently rugged vehicle, and/or (2) They didn't drive very carefully if they weren't driving such a vehicle.
(It could have been us.)
We camped again at the Crazy Woman Canyon campsite that night. On the way, we bought two small bags of
ice to put in the refrigerator and freezer in order to keep items from spoiling. It worked. But the milk got
warm. So, we had to put ice in our cups of milk to make the milk cooler. ("Ice milk"? We were roughing it.
Ha! Ha!) Fortunately, the milk tasted fine. While sleeping that night, I peaked out my window again and
noticed that the sky was clear. Again. So, I got up, walked outside (after I put on some clothes, even though
no one could see me, I think), and hung outside for a few minutes, and soaked up the dark night sky / the dark
night's sky / the night's dark sky.
That night while I was taking a shower, my friend shouted to me to turn off the water. The reason was because
an error code -- E6 (again like with the refrigerator/freezer error code) -- was displayed on the control panel
inside the trailer. It was related to the water system this time. After about a minute, I told him that I wanted
to at least rinse off the soap. He okayed it and I quickly finished my shower. This probably needs to be fixed
while fixing the problem with the refrigerator and freezer. Note: Another error code, this time E4, was
displayed on the panel related to the refrigerator and freezer.
Sunday, August 3rd --
After eating our last scrambled egg breakfast, we packed up the truck and the trailer and drove down to
Buffalo. We topped off the truck's gas tank and left around 11:30. Along the way, we once again
encountered the same stretch of railroad tracks where there were SO many train locomotives joined
head-to-toe. I did the math, and if a new
locomotive costs between $2 and $4 million, then that collection of locomotives cost between $200 and $600
million. Wow! 2-1/2 hours later, we returned to Casper at about 2 o’clock.
Epilogue
All in all, the trip was great. A good thing was that each time that we worked with getting the trailer
into parking places, we improved. I hope that the trials and tribulations that we experienced will help my
friend and his wife avoid future difficulties while parking the trailer.