The last day of Custer…..rain again. Not just some rain, the all day type rain. We started the day getting breakfast at one of the parks historic hotels. Maro knocked out a couple blog posts, and the two of us tried to decide what to do all day. We were told several times about this place called ‘The Plunge’ or “The Gulch,’ or something. However, we decided to give the wildlife loop another try, then pack up and leave a day early.
We left the hotel, and headed straight to the wildlife loop. We ran straight into the awesome burros again, hoped out and fed them whatever we had in the car…..pretty sure it was old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Said goodbye to these awesome asses, and continued on. We drove over a couple more rolling hills, and there they were!!!! Hundreds of buffalo. Our first time seeing wild buffalo. The kids went crazy, Maro and I were excited and we just watched. Technically, we could drive if
we wanted to because they were all over the road. They were on both sides, some walking feet from the car, all
while Akira (our 6 year old) is going “awwweee, awwwwee, they are so cute. Mom I am gonna get a baby one and take it to the carV (its what she calls the RV). It can sleep in your bed.”
Happy with our bison find, we headed back to the RV, packed and hit the road. We had to return the rental car first. With that was my first experience driving in 25-35 mph gusts. Let me tell you, its not that fun when your driving a giant box that feels every bit of wind. We dropped the car off, and decided to head to Devil’s Tower for the night. On the way we decided to take a more scenic route, so we could pop in and see Deadwood…and to avoid highway I90 in windy conditions.
Deadwood was, well, a disappointment if you are traveling with kids. Main street looks cool, but there are zero kid options. It’s a lot of quarter slots and dive bars. If Maro and I were there by ourselves, we could have enjoyed a drink in two old, old saloons that had great vintage décor and some amazing sounding live music. We opted for grabbing Starbucks for dinner. Sometimes that is needed and is completely normal in the Trendel book. It was breakfast sandwiches and pumpkin loaf for the win. After they ate, the kids watched a movie in the back. The sun had set some time before that, and we pulled off the interstate to a lonely two lane road leading to Devil’s Tower. Not knowing if we were in mountains, or not, we went at a snail’s pace. This road was dark….and empty. Not just kinda of dark, I’m talking dark that scares your soul. I know we were on our way to Devil’s Tower, home of my mom’ favorite movie Close Encounters, but this would definitely be the time to see
an alien spaceship. We didn’t, thank God. We pulled in late to the KOA, and went straight to sleep.
The boys woke everyone up, with a “what is that thing, is that a mountain,” as they looked out the window. As said prior, it was so dark, we had no idea we were camping directly under Devil’s Tower. We ate breakfast, and jumped in the line of traffic. Lucky for us the KOA is literally next to the gate. We parked and decided to walk the loop around the tower. Before we even started walking, we caught two or three different groups climbing the tower. It was awesome to see. None of us have ever scene climbers in action, and the feeling, just watching them, was fantastic. The walk was great, and was finished with Maro and the kids scrambling on some boulders. The Trendels love climbing on rocks, from the three year old to mom, myself included, its fun every time, for all of us. Lots of people had made comments about checking this one off the list, but I am super happy we stopped here.
After this, we are off to Billings, Montana…..to stay a night in a hotel.
