Mashed Potato Time

I was hoping that by heading east across Wyoming I would sooner or later get out beyond the range of the wildfire smoke. Three days later I found myself in Gillette, Wyoming’s tourist information asking them how to get around the high wind warning.

I have been trying to avoid the interstates on this trip. Mostly because I think they are designed to get people from one place to another, as quickly as possible, with as little interaction with the in-between as possible.  As you can tell by now, I am not any hurry.  Plus I kind of like the in-between.

There is also the issue of the 80mph speed limits. I have gotten the car and trailer up to 75mph on a long flat stretch but I don’t like it. I much prefer a nice peaceful lane blocking speed of 60mph at the most. As the big semi’s roll past at 80mph, they push the trailer and me all over the road. So I try to stay off the interstates.

There are not too many paved roads in Wyoming that aren’t interstate, at least the roads that go anywhere. From Gillette decided to go check out Devils tower an hour away by interstate. An interstate that whose electronic reader boards were a flashing high wind danger road closed for small trailers for the stretch I needed to be on to get me there. Even at 60mph, adding 50 mph would have turned the trailer in to kite.

I ended up zig zagging my way through 2 hours of bumpy and windy back roads to and just beat the black rain clouds to my campsite at Devils Tower.

I got some dinner and walked over to the Ranger talk on Prairie Dogs. It was an interesting talk as far as Prairie Dogs are interesting but the Lightning was starting to flash and the first drops of rain started to fall. I ditched the ranger talk and crawled into the trailer just as the big rains and winds came in.  I think I was asleep at 8pm.

Then woke up around midnight to pee and noticed the sky was clear and the stars were out.

I grabbed my camera with the hopes of catching the Milky Way over Devils Tower. But neither Devils Tower nor the Milky Way were cooperating.  There was no way I could get both in the frame at the same time. So I took some practice photos. Keeping an eye out for Bears and Mountain lions. I didn’t really pay attention at the ranger talk so just in case I missed the part about the prairie dogs being Nocturnal Man Eaters, I watched for them too. Not to mention the whole fly saucer thing.

It’s a good thing I had all my corners watched because in one corner I saw a flash of light far off in the distance, then another. I flipped my camera in that direction and caught this.

That’s the Northern Lights and the Devils Tower. Second time in a year that I have seen them. First was a freezing cold 4 night effort in Northern Canada and this was just a pee in the dark. I much prefer the latter method to see them.