8/7/21 – Rawlins, WY to Devils Tower, WY

We debated whether we wanted to make a big arc around what is the Sturgis motorcycle rally that started yesterday. While Devils Tower was a place we wanted to visit it’s not a must, with Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota being our next ‘attraction’.  Devils Tower is on the route to the national park and after I noticed that the KOA next to Devils Tower still had availability for that day we decided to make a reservation and head that way, Sturgis be damned. Having the reservation makes for a more relaxed riding day (300 miles) because there’s no worrying about whether the campground will have availability.

  It was windy and only 54F when we left Rawlins, heated gear for us AZ wimps. Thankfully, the wind subsided to a manageable though still annoying level shortly after leaving. The temperature climbed as well. So hazy though, makes taking good pictures really hard because everything further out is obscured. Landscape was not really that exciting, nor was the riding, lots of straight roads. Had to get on IH-25 to connect two routes. 80MPH speed limit, same as in West Texas. Weee. The big question, what would the KOA be like with Sturgis only 60 miles away?

   Busy. Where did all the Harleys come from ;-)? KOA parking lot was packed. Across the street is some kind of restaurant/bar/souvenir shop with an equally packed parking lot of motorcycles. This does not look well. I go check in and ride the tenting area by myself to scope it out. Whew. It’s open camping (over an acre) with only a smattering of tents, not all of which had motorcycles next to them. OK, this we can do so I ride back to the office and tell Diane to follow me in. Picking a camping spot was easy. We are good with a sense of relief. Outside the campgrounds is complete craziness but the camping area itself is quite nice. 

Route