2017 Western Trip Day 4

Monday is the day of the 2017 total solar eclipse and ironically we left St.Louis (100% totality) and are in Montana where it will only be about 88%. We planned on staying at our campsite until after the solar eclipse and then driving the 4 hours or so over to Devil's Tower Wyoming, our next destination.

We took the easy way over to Devil's Tower using Hwy 90. We stopped for lunch in Sheridan Wyoming before making our way over to Devil's Tower. It is an impressive site to see the monument "tower" over the surrounding prairie as you approach. 

Arriving at Devil's Tower National Monument.

We should not have been surprised that the day of the total eclipse the national parks would be very crowded. With only one entrance line into the park it took awhile to get through the line of cars.

Once in the park the main destination at the end of the road in the visitors center. I snapped a quick picture of Vicky in front of the monument. 

Besides just looking at the monument, the park has a good series of trails that let you get a good look at the Tower from many different vantage points and distances. The real value is to get out away from the crowds and tour buses and get out on the trail. Today we decided to stretch our legs and just do the Tower trail, which is the closest loop to the monument and gives you a really great view from its base all the way around. 

looking out away from the base (below)

panorama of the view from the base of Devils Tower

Looking straight up the Eastern side

Looking out from a different side 

it was a lovely day to be there. 

Monument through the trees 

The late afternoon light was giving great color to the rock and the landscape for a few hours we walked around

Western view 

After going around the trail we tried to find the lodge we booked into for the stay. I tried originally to get a small hut at the KOA right at the entrance to Devils Tower, but they were full. I then noticed online that Whitetail Creek Outfitters showed up right next to the KOA. I emailed the outfitters and while they didn't really have a formal booking process online I did hear back from Brad and he said he would have a room for us. 

When we went to look for it next to the KOA as google maps had it, it was nowhere to be found. So we pulled into the brand new Devils Tower Gulch Bar right on Hwy 24 just outside the Monument.

You can see below how close the bar is to the entrance to the Park.

It was brand new and just opened, in time for the Sturgis Rally a few weeks previous, so we relaxed for a while and chatted with the bartender and of course sampled the local beers 

He new all about the Whitetail creek outfitter and Brad. It seems that the location was actually about 7 miles down the road and that they had at one time been a big deal but lately fallen on a bit of hard times. To be honest if I would have realized that they were in fact a hunting lodge specializing in hunting deer and prairie dogs I would have booked somewhere else, but since the park and surrounding area were so crowded all the other accommodations were full and pretty further away from the park, so it was off in search of  our lodging with new directions.

We found it and brad did have a room for us. In fact he had all the rooms as we were the only ones staying in the lodge. He still had a bar open and maybe one or two old timers visited in the evening, but it was clean and Brad was nice (along with his old dog) and the price was good, albeit cash/check only. It would do us fine

Our room for the next couple of days

once we got settled and their was no restaurant anymore in the lodge, we decided to go back to the Gulch Bar and restaurant to see what they had in the way of food. Having just opened they didn't have the restaurant part worked out yet, but did have Bar pizza in a pizza oven. Well that was good enough for me and along with a couple Black Top Brewing dark beers it tasted just fine.

Good night to our first night at Devils Tower.