Hey everyone.  This is Leg 4 of our #ptparadsummer2019 trip.  In our last post on Leg 3, we spent several days in the Black Hills of South Dakota enjoying all scenery and nearly getting head butted by some bison! (catch up on Leg 2 and Leg 1).  On this leg of our vacation we decided to leave the Black Hills a day early to avoid a large storm (and completely failed) and travel to Devil’s Tower National Monument and spend the night in the Nebraska panhandle.  Let’s get into it.

Day 7 – 04 July 2019 – Black Hills National Forest to Devil’s Tower National Monument to Agate, Nebraska

Our original plan was to day trip to Devil’s Tower National Monument and spend the evening watching fireworks at one of the towns near our camping spot in Black Hills National Forest.  However, the weather forecast wasn’t very positive around fireworks time, so we opted to pack up.  Our new plan was to drive to Devil’s Tower and drive as far as we could stand towards our next destination, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in the Nebraska Panhandle.

We got moving early.  With Patty packed up and hooked up, we hit the road for Devil’s Tower National Monument.  The rain was already hitting us as we crossed into Wyoming.  We stopped at a Wyoming rest area to hit the dump station.  Wyoming’s rest areas are quite impressive.  So many of them have dump stations and the facilities are clean and spacious.  I won’t say I enjoyed dumping the trailer in driving rain, but the RV life isn’t all sunshine, right?

Devil’s Tower National Monument

The drive north on US-14 and WY-24 from Sundance is quite beautiful.  The rain cleared just as we were arriving to the Monument and we were treated to a wonderful view of the monolith.  I was surprised by the back up of traffic at the front gate.  It’s always amazing to see what National Park Units are popular, especially the units like Devil’s Tower that are out all by themselves.

The park was so busy, the rangers at the gate house instructed us to drop Patty at an oversize vehicle parking lot.  It took us a few minutes to drop Patty and we started heading up the hill.

The kids grabbed their Junior Ranger books and worked through the pages.  The visitor center’s exhibits were small but informative.  Once they finished everything they could in the visitor center, we stepped out on the trail that encircles the monolith.

The trail took us around the base of the tower.  The views on the trail provided different angles of the towers and out to the valleys surrounding the area.  We enjoyed the short hike and even got to see some climbers working their way up the tower.

After our hike, the kids finished up their Junior Ranger badges and got sworn in.  We drove back down the hill.  The boys worked on hooking up the trailer while the girls got lunch ready.  With some sandwiches and chips in our bellies, we headed south towards Nebraska.

Driving To Agate, Nebraska

Our next destination was Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.  We didn’t have reservations anywhere because we left our dispersed camping in the Black Hills National Forest a day early.  We used all the usual sites to look for a campground near Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and came up pretty dry.  The Monument’s website suggested Pavement Ends Campground, which was less than a mile from the Monument.  We contacted the campground and asked if they had availability.  The woman that answered chuckled and said, “oh yes.  We have room for you tonight.”  The joke didn’t resonate with us until we arrived later that afternoon.

I didn’t know what to expect in the Nebraska Panhandle.  It is so isolated.  There are very few towns and most are quite small.  There are probably more cattle in some of the areas than people.  As we neared Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, we lost cell coverage.  The Monument is quite remote.  Their website warned us of this, but it is really out there.

Pavement Ends Campground

The Pavement Ends Campground is just east of Agate Fossil Beds National Monument and we actually had to drive through the Monument to get to the campground.  The campground is literally at the end of the pavement of River Road.  When we pulled into the campground, we got the joke about availability.  The campground was completely empty.  While we were setting up, “the farmer’s wife” (her license plate literally said that) came out to visit.

The owners are cattle ranchers.  For the 2017 eclipse, they mowed a hay field to allow campers on their property.  They tapped into their irrigation well and ran some electricity.  The campers that stayed for the eclipse made their money back and then some.  They keep the campground open as it continues to pay for itself over and over.

We appreciated the visit and “the farmer’s wife”.  She stayed and talked for almost 20 minutes.  She suggested to us that we go to nearby Harrison, Nebraska to watch their Fourth of July fireworks.  We took her tip and drove the 20 minutes north to Harrison.

Harrison Fireworks

Harrison is a quaint small town.  The town’s volunteer fire department put on the fireworks.  They had several piles of fireworks in the middle of the park and the firefighters would run out and light more stuff as fast as possible.  It was quite a show for being so rudimentary.  It was a great dose of small town America.  This is probably the our favorite municipal Fourth of July ever.  Such a great memory.

After the fireworks, we checked the weather before going back into the cell dead zone.  Some severe weather was moving into the area, but the forecast showed it going north of the campground.  We were leery, but we drove on into the dead zone.

Bleeding over into Day 8 – 05 July 2019 – Riding Out the Storm

We went to bed late because of the fireworks.  Around midnight, Erin shook me awake.  It was raining pretty steady.  There was lightning like I don’t think I’ve seen.  It seemed as though there was a strobe light all around the trailer.  Without cell coverage, the only thing we had to inform us of what was going on was one of the kid’s walkie talkies that had a weather radio in it (Thanks Cousin Lindy!).  We couldn’t really understand the severity of the storms around us.  The county we were in, Sioux County, is almost 70 miles long north to south.  So when the weather radio said north Sioux County, it didn’t help.  Everything became clear when a severe thunderstorm warning came in and said a cell was located 1 mile west of Agate Fossil Beds National Monument with damaging wind and golf ball sized hail.

Patty was rocking and rolling with hail slamming down.  The rain was unreal.  The major downside of staying in such a remote campground was that we didn’t have a storm shelter.  We had to ride out the storm in Patty.  The storm eventually subsided around 2 am.

I know we certainly aren’t the first family to ride out a storm in a RV.  Also, we really lucked out.  A few things got wet from some leaks and somehow we managed to not get any severe damage to the truck or RV that we’ve noticed.  Here’s to that being the last severe storm to ride out with out a storm shelter nearby.

We’ll pick up next time with some tired parents packing up after a night glued to the weather radio to drive further south towards Laramie, Wyoming.  Thanks for reading along.

 

-See you out there

 

Part-Time Paradise