Day 7 -- Boysen State Park, WY

Miles traveled: 297
Hours on Road: 8
States covered: 2 – South Dakota, Wyoming

Man, it gets cold at night. FYI, a sleeping bag IS necessary when camping out west. I’ve already called Jeff and asked him to borrow a couple from Rod and Trisha. A blanket isn’t cutting it. It’s a wet coldness that requires the nylon exterior of a sleeping bag to stop it. Last night was a little better because I laid Trey’s sleeping bag on top of the mattress and Trey and I covered up with the blanket. We also closed all the windows on the tent. Still….brrrr.

We had a slow start to our day today. I let Cal and Parker sleep as late as they wanted while Trey and I sat and marveled at Devils Tower.

During my shower I finally shaved my legs; it’s been six days! I’ve been in this, “We’re camping so I don’t have to adhere to social pressures of hairlessness and neatness.” But yesterday, at Spokane Creek, there was a young girl in the camp bathroom who not only blow-dried her hair, but she flat ironed it as well, and sprayed half a bottle of hairspray on it. It was at that moment that I realized, people maintain their social norms, even while camping. So I shaved my legs. It’s not that I’m totally gross. I’m very concerned about germs, especially in the camp bathrooms. I don’t let my things touch things that other people’s things have touched (for example, before I get in the shower, where I always wear flip flops, I hang my shorts on the shower hook then hang my underwear over the shorts to make sure that the underwear, which shall touch my private skin, never touches the wall that other people’s underwear or body might have touched.) Anyway, I am concerned with cleanliness, it’s just the neatness factor and caring about how I look that I find hard to adhere to. But I shaved my legs, so I put in some effort.

On the way out of the Devils Tower area, I led a caravan of the cautious. I was doing my usual 5 to 10 mph below the speed limit and getting nervous that the people behind me would get upset, but at no point did they attempt to pass me. We were: my van, two motor cycles, a car, a large truck, and another van. We were passed, collectively, by other drivers, but my caravan followed me at my steady slow pace.

Shortly after leaving Devils Tower, and three hours from our next destination, Boysen State Park, we caught our first glimpse of snow capped mountains. As we neared them, I noticed that, while several signs suggested that people heading to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons should take Route 16, our MapQuest directions did not have us going that way. I figured it was because we were going to Boysen State Park on the way. I then figured, if we took Route 16 anyway, Lee would find the way to Boysen for us. I also read through my itinerary and saw that my brother, Wilson, had recommended that we take 16. So, that’s what we did.

Soon after turning onto 16 we found ourselves behind a couple of large campers. Since the road went up a pretty steep hill, the campers really slowed us down. Hard to believe, but I actually wanted to go faster than someone (the campers were going only about 30 mph, that’s why). The road became two lanes, so I quickly passed those campers, but on my way past a couple of other vehicles, I suddenly had to stop. There was a herd of cattle in the middle of the road!! There were a bunch of people on horses herding the cattle, but it really just looked like mass confusion. One of the horseback riders was a little girl, so they couldn’t have been that serious about this cattle drive. One guy, a real cowboy, was obviously in charge. He came up to our window and apologized and said it could take a while. I told him it was no problem and that we’re from Connecticut and we never get to see anything like this back home. The large semi that was on its way down the mountain was not as patient. He sat for a while, but I imagine his breaks were being strained, so he eventually started moving forward slowly, and the cows all moved out of his way. We sat there for about 10 or 15 minutes before the herd was moved to one side of the road, and we drove on, very happy that we had decided to go this route.

The mountain we were climbing went through Big Horn National Forest and reached an elevation of about 9,700 feet. All this driving on steep roads with major switchbacks and serious drop-offs has kept me well outside my comfort zone for a couple of days now. This mountain, much like the Black Hills, had switchbacks, but at least these were wide enough for vehicles to pass in opposite directions. They had to be larger because semis and huge campers took this route. This was evident, not only because of the presence of said vehicles, but also because of the existence of a “runaway truck ramp.” You don’t see those every day. There was a 10 mile stretch of a 6% grade. This was way out of my comfort zone. At one point I was drying my sweaty hands in front of the air conditioner and Parker asked what the heck I was doing. He said it looked like I was trying to “use the force.” For what, he didn’t know, but that’s what it looked like to him.

When we finally reached the bottom, we entered a town called Ten Sleep, and that’s just about how many people live in that town. Actually, the population is 304. That’s where we got gas.

At some point, the height and steepness of the mountains made the boys wonder whether it is possible to parachute from them. I said that as long as the wind was blowing in the right direction it would probably be doable. If the wind was going the wrong way, bang! Right into the mountain. That’s when Cal asked Parker if he would ever make that part of his bucket list. Parker responded, “I’m 14, Cal. I don’t have a bucket list.”

The entire day the boys were bugging me to take them to a movie. Parker kept looking up theaters on the GPS. The first one Lee led us to was no longer in existence. The second one didn’t have any matinees. The third one, in Thermopolis, was, as Parker said, “The size of my bedroom,” and was showing only Eclipse. No movie today.

We drove through the most beautiful canyon with extremely high walls where the road was on one side of a river and railroad tracks were on the other. It was yet another unnerving drive for me, during which I was given the supreme insult. I was passed by a UPS truck! It wasn’t even a two-lane road. He just got sick of being behind me. The road had spots in which tunnels were blasted through the mountains, the railroad tracks did, too. I was near the end of my rope when just through the end of one of the tunnels was Lower Wind River Campground. Not quite what we wanted, but close in name. Several miles down the road was what we were looking for: Upper Wind River Campground. I pulled in and immediately used the bathroom. On my walk to it I noticed an unusual number of moths around me. When I opened the bathroom door, I was attacked by a swarm of them. I held the door open, and enough of them flew out that I could use the facilities.

When I got back in the van, I noticed that the campground was almost completely empty – only one large camper and one tent. We found our site and pulled in, and within seconds there were six moths on my window. Because there were so many moths, there were lots of birds, and with birds comes bird poop. The picnic table we were supposed to use was covered with poop. Parker and I didn’t even get out of the van. Cal and Trey ran to use the playground that was right by our site. Parker and I just sat there laughing at the situation, then I noticed that Cal and Trey were gone. Parker said that the moths had eaten them. Really, they’d just moved a little further along on the playground. It wasn’t too long before they came back to the van, too bothered by moths to continue playing. There was absolutely not a single soul outside in the area. No one. And we knew why. After deciding that I not only did not want to fight moths all night, but I also did not want to clean tons of bird poop off my tent in the morning, I had Parker look up hotels on the GPS. He found a Comfort Inn in Riverton, which was on the way to the Tetons. I think by now we've ascertained that I am no diva, but really. We hightailed it out of Camp Moth.

We had another 25 miles to go, and it was amazing how the terrain changed. One minute we’re in a lush canyon with walls several hundred feet high and the next we’re in the middle of barren, flat land that stretched on for miles. The speed limit was 65, so I wasn’t too hard pressed to adhere to it, until I noticed a semi that was rapidly catching up to me. We were on a one-lane road so, although there were passing spots, there was no easy way for him to get around me. Every time there was a passing zone, someone was coming the other way. I was under such pressure to keep up my speed that I felt like I was being chased. Twenty five miles of being chased by a several-ton truck; what a way to end the day.

When we got to Riverton, we checked out the Comfort Inn, but we also noticed a Hampton Inn and Suites that looked pretty sweet. We ended up checking in at the Hampton, and what a great choice we made. The hotel is so new, there’s a sign out front that says, “Now Open.” Everything smells brand new, and I think we may be the first people to use the room we’re in. The boys went swimming and whirlpooling, and now we’re just sitting here watching “The Green Mile” and playing on computers.

Now that’s the way to end the day!!

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