Epic Summer Road Trip 2019 (Day 48 & 49): Big Horn National Forest & a non-visit to Yellowstone

We departed Devil’s Tower a little later than intended since the kids had stayed up late and I needed to give them some much needed rest.  I wandered around the KOA looking for the wireless router so that I could upload some pictures to the blog.  I swear, it takes more time to manage the pictures and get everything organized than it does to actually write stuff down!  After the first of the Harley’s started crackling through the day’s early light, I decided to wake up the kids and make breakfast.  I was a little bit worried because the truck had told me that I only had 66 miles worth of gas left in the tank and I still had to drive about 32 miles to get to the next best gas station. 

We set out and immediately had to climb some knarly hills in order to get out of Devil’s Tower.  I kept a close eye on the gas and we were able to make it to the gas station with about 16 miles left!  Pulling a trailer laden with water for the next night certainly impacts your gas mileage!  The drive outside of Gillette, WY heading east quickly became pretty flat and boring.  If you’re not driving on gravel roads, pretty much all of the back country paved roads allow you to go 70 mph except when you hit a town “population: three digits” and have to slow down to 45 mph for a fraction of a second.  Along the way you’re passing pastures of cows along with long swaths of uncultivated land that periodically contain pronghorns and deer grazing on the hillside. 

After a few hours of driving, we made it to Dayton (not Ohio), WY to stop for our last tank of gas and some groceries before heading up through the Big Horn Mountain Range.  This range isn’t too long and is, in fact, fairly narrow to get over, but it sure is steep!  As you drive up, there are signs that tell you the type of rock that you’re passing along with how old it is.  All I worried about was the engine on the truck wouldn’t blow up after sitting at 5K RPMs for an extended amount of time as well as that small problem of driving over the edge!  After miles and miles of steep 10% grade switchbacks, we finally crested the top at about 8500 feet.  It is like another world on top of this range!  The temperature dropped about 20 degrees, but it is beautiful high desert complete with tall pines and huge valleys.   

We made it to our campground called Porcupine Campground which is located pretty much in the middle of the surrounding National Forest.  I quickly realized that it is one of the most freeing places I have ever been too.  You’re pretty much allowed to explore anywhere you want to and much of the land is navigable, because you can see for miles around with only high desert to traverse.  The wildlife is everywhere and the streams are abundant with native trout.  My kind of place!  The locals leave an RV unhitched and unattended on the side of the dirt road back into the woods a little way.  I’m pretty sure they’re left there during the week so the owners can come up during the weekend to camp, hunt, or just explore. 

As I had the kids begin to set up camp, a neighboring camper stopped over and asked if I could help him unload his cooler from the back of his truck.  Craig and Jean were here from Billings, MT and had already spent about a week up here and were enjoying retirement along with some friends that periodically came and went from the campground.  They had just made a grocery trip and I was the lucky guy who was asked to help unload their heavy cooler.  As we carried the cooler, I told them where we were from along with the details of our trip thus far.  After introductions with everyone, I showed Craig the map inside our camper which plots out our route and he was impressed.  I then asked Craig if he knew how far it was to Porcupine Falls since the falls were prominently displayed on the campsite’s website when I originally made the reservation.  He told me the trailhead was about 4 miles down the way on a dirt road and my truck would have no problem making it there. 

At this point, Craig looked at us and thought for a second before saying, “Would you be interested in borrowing one of our ATVs and taking the kids to the trailhead?”  The look on Drew’s face was absolutely priceless!  The ATV was large enough to hold all three of us riding in tandem and the only concern was that there were no helmets.  Wendy would definitely not approve, but Wendy wasn’t here. 😊  Obviously, I was going to drive under control since there were no helmets, it wasn’t our ATV, and I was carrying the kids.  Off we went after a quick tutorial of the controls!  Drew commented that this day was the best day of the trip so far.  He is easily pleased when it comes to vehicle and devices he’s not normally allowed to operate.  Pretty much like any boy.

We made it down to Porcupine Falls trailhead after only one wrong turn and a little back tracking.  Olivia even spotted a bear, but upon closer inspection Drew and I laughed after the animal turned out to be a cow.  “It yawned and I saw lots of teeth!” was her excuse.  The hike down to the falls was quick, but I hadn’t realized that it was so steep.  Of course, Olivia was only wearing sandals and she got some curious looks from some other hikers that we passed along the way.  Oh well, we made it.  The falls were beautiful, but we only stayed for a brief time as I noticed some dark clouds rolling in.  Since we were at high elevation, the hike back up the trail had us huffing and puffing just as it started to sprinkle.  We hopped back on the ATV and made it back to the campsite after dodging raindrops the entire way.  Apparently, it had down poured at the campground while we were out and so Craig was surprised that we were still relatively dry.  We thanked him profusely and headed back to the campsite for hotdogs, edamame, and rice to warm us up.  After dinner we had fun walking around the countryside and exploring a bit before crawling into the camper for some sleep.

The next morning, I had a stomach ache so we all agreed to break down camp and leave relatively early for our next stop outside of Livingston, MT.  It certainly didn’t help driving down the western side of the mountain range with a 10% steep grade with switchbacks and curves.  My stomach was certainly churning!  I promised the kids that we would stop at a diner as soon as we arrived at the nearest town to eat, but the towns on Rt 14 are pretty small.  The only spots were bar & grills with casinos and we didn’t find anything until driving all the way to I-90.  It was basically lunchtime before we found a roadside café where we scarfed down a meal, before making our way to Livingston. 

We arrived at our KOA which is about 10 miles south of Livingston and about 40 miles north of Yellowstone National Park.  I have no regrets being 40 miles away from Yellowstone and not visiting the park.  I made a rule long ago that I will never visit Yellowstone again in the summer due to the crowds, traffic jams, and just masses of humanity in general.  The kids played in the pool while I did a couple of much needed loads of laundry.  It was a low-key evening where I made dinner while the kids played games inside the camper while we listened to a rainstorm pass through outside.  Every time it rains, I tell the kids, “I sure am glad we’re not in a tent!”  That night we walked to the pavilion and enjoyed a $2 ice cream social put on by the KOA staff every Friday and Saturday night.