Wyoming – Kline Road Trips

2025

Devil’s Tower and the prairie dogs

July 20, 2025 Amy Kline

In order to break up all the days of driving, we camped at Devil’s Tower for one night. Jeff and I love this National Monument. It was our first “National Park like stop on our first roadtrip back in 2005h. Fun hikes, important historical stuff, a great campground, a movie connection (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and prairie dogs galore!

The cottonwood shaded campground is first come, first served, so we were nervous that there wouldn’t be any sites left when we got there about 4 pm. We were lucky enough to get a wonderful site! Once we got set up, I went to the visitor’s center, while the boys and Jeff relaxed at the campsite. It was pretty hot out, so we didn’t go for the hike around the base of the tower.

At the info board at both the campground and the visitor center, there is a sign that is now required. You can read it in the photos of this blog post and also the sign that someone put up near it as a form of resistance.

Jeff made yummy chicken legs for dinner and got a campfire started while I attended the ranger talk. Ranger talks are one of the best features when staying in a national park. Some state parks have them too. The subject tonight was how to recognize heat stroke and we also learned about thunderstorms and super cells. Apparently in August 2024, a tornado went through Devil’s Tower area and the park lost a few hundred trees due to wind and baseball sized hail. The KOA campground that is down the road got the worst of it though. Lots of ruined campers but no one was hurt.

After the Ranger talk, Jeff and I sat by the fire (kids sat in the camper where there weren’t any bugs). It is our 28th anniversary on the 19th, and we are proud of how we have built a nice life together with great kids, and jobs that let us travel the country in this way together every summer. Around 10:30, we began to see lightning in the distance and figured we would have to bring the camper down when it is still wet which means we will have to raise it to get it dried out at a rest stop somewhere or else set it up right away when we get home. Resigned to that, we went to sleep.

Somehow, the rains never came overnight, so in the morning, I quickly went to the prairie dog town to get some more photos of the doggies and the tower, then we all packed up and were on our way to Sioux Falls for the last hotel night.

Uncategorized

Drive to and relaxation in the Bighorn Mountains

July 14, 2024July 14, 2024 Amy Kline

As we left Thermopolis, we drove through the Buffalo range in the Hot Springs State Park. Lots of trails around too, but it was way too hot to go hiking right now.

As we drove, the rocks began to change. Less red and more jagged. We drove on the Cloud Peak Scenic Byway on state highway 16 to get to our campsite at Sitting Bull Campground in the Bighorn National Forest. The views were breathtaking! As we climbed higher and higher, it went from semi arid sagebrush, to lodge pole pine tree forests.

Our campsite was huge! At least triple the normal size site at most campgrounds. There is a view of a meadow with the mountains in the distance that was right down the path. And lots of wildflowers including purple lupine everywhere!

Jeff made steaks and then we relaxed with no cell signal to be found. The hammock was set up and a small squirrel came to investigate. A deer walked up to us too, a second after I got up and walked away from my phone of course, so I couldn’t get a picture before it took off.

Overnight there was an incredible thunderstorm. No wind or hail, but lots of lightning and thunder that was incredibly loud and sounded different than any other thunder I’ve ever heard. It must have been echoing off the mountains all around us.

The next day we went in to Ten Sleep to get lunch and to check in with the world. As we turned onto the highway, a moose crossed the road. I did manage to get a photo of that!

After we got back to the campsite, Jeff went on a hike to the lake across the highway while the rest of us relaxed. The temp was only 75 degrees up here, even though it was 98 down in Ten Sleep.

Unfortunately we had to leave this peaceful paradise and move on with our vacation, but this area is definitely one we want to come back to again. As we drove to our hotel in Glendive, Montana, the temperature hovered around 100 degrees.

Carson and I thought this gave off “Radiator Springs” vibes.

Uncategorized

Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, Wyoming

July 11, 2024 Amy Kline

It was a layover type day, as we took care of life things like catch up on appointments and email, clean out the cooler, etc. We stopped to get ice and I even went to the quilt shop in town.

In the afternoon, I decided to venture out in the 95 degree heat to go explore the state park across the street and I am so glad I did! Did you ever want to experience a little bit of Yellowstone without all the people and animal traffic jams? And even be able to soak in the hot springs? Then book a stay in this town and explore!

I first saw Teepee fountain, which was actually man made, as a way of venting out some of the piping for the hot spring pools in the park. Then I walked along a boardwalk on the travertine, just like at Yellowstone. I half expected a buffalo to amble over the ridge. It smelled like Yellowstone too. There is a suspension bridge that crosses the river too, and lots of trails I didn’t take because it was a million degrees out and I was by myself and not prepared to do a hike in the back country.

I did find the hot spring though. Pretty awesome with the red rocks in the background. Long ago, there was a treaty between the Shoshone and the State of Wyoming that the hot springs would be available for everyone. Wyoming stuck to that treaty since then and so there is a public hot springs pool that is open daily for anyone who wants to use it. There are also 2 longstanding companies with hot spring pools with water slides.

I made it back to the hotel room without dying of heat exhaustion and enjoyed the AC with the rest of the family. Then we went to dinner in the hotel restaurant that is full of mounted trophy animals. The owner of the hotel had been a trophy hunter for years and years. As the ethics of trophy hunting changed, he changed with the times too. In his later years, he shot the animals with tranquilizer darts and got his picture, and then a vet would band and check the animal and then it woke up and went back to living. The tourism dollars still went to the people in Africa where he hunted, and the animals would get checked over for health and research purposes. I thought that was very interesting.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: