SD, WY, MT – Jul 2025

I visited a couple more NPS sites during this leg of my journey, including this gem Devils Tower – made famous by the iconic movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind “.  Lots of other interesting places to visit, and sadly, a few maintenance issues to deal with.  Ah, such is the life of a full-time RVer.  So, lets get into the details.

Sioux Falls, SD

I was scheduled to visit this town back in 2022, but had to skip over it due to an unplanned week long truck repair resulting from a deer strike (HERE). Thankfully, I was able to get it back on the itinerary for this year. With a population estimated to exceed 209,000 residents, Sioux Falls is the most populous city in South Dakota, and represents more than 30% of the entire state’s population.  The namesake waterfall is located in beautiful downtown Falls Park featuring the cascades of Big Sioux River.  It’s a beautiful park and a very picturesque falls. Also located in the park were the ruins of the Queen Bee Mill (at left, bottom) – a water driven wheat mill built in 1878 that was largely destroyed by a 1956 fire.  Last up, just a short distance from the park, was the Arc of Dreams.  At nearly the length of a football field, this stainless-steel sculpture spans the Big Sioux River.  At the center of the Arc is a 15-foot gap, 80 feet above the river, representing the leap of faith dreamers take to see their dreams come true.  It was quite the amazing structure.

Also in downtown Sioux Falls was the Old Courthouse Museum.  Housed in, what else, but a 19th-century quartzite stone building that once served as the administrative offices of Minnehaha County from 1890 until it was outgrown in 1962.  Amazingly, it was slated to be demolished in favor of a parking lot, but was saved by the outraged campaigns of concerned citizens.  Good thing as it is a beautiful building. Its three floors include exhibits covering Northern Plains Native Americans, breakthroughs in recorded sound, advertising premiums, evolution of kitchens and cookbooks, and an entire floor dedicated to local school sports and school spirit.  Among the particular items I found interesting was this conventional toaster that was transformed into an 8-track player, an old circa 1930s carbon-arc theater projector, and a rare Fawick Flyer car built by local inventor Thomas Fawick that Teddy Roosevelt rode in during a Sioux Falls parade.  The car also featured Firestone bias ply tires with “NON SKID” embossed in its treads.  Too cool!  Lastly, the museum features the remnants of a tree with an impaled bridge steel girder from a 1932 tornado.  The overall architecture of the building, both outside and inside, was truly beautiful.

My last stop in downtown Sioux Falls takes me to their Veterans Park.  I’ve visited many Veterans parks throughout my past many years of travel, and this one is certainly among the top that I’ve seen.  Filled with amazing sculptures and art pieces all representative of the sacrifices made by our war hero’s, and the sufferings of their Gold Star families.  This park was truly special.  Particularly so was the centerpiece featuring an angel carrying a soldier up into heaven (at left, bottom left), or the piece titled “Eternal Sentry” (at left, top center right) that honors all who have been called and to remind us to honor and respect the duty and sacrifices they gave for our freedoms and security.  Truly inspiring pieces!

Next I drove some 45 miles to the northeast to the town of Pipestone – home to the Pipestone National Monument.  What essentially started out as a culturally significant quarry to over 20 tribal nations, is now NPS protected land.   This quarry contains special red stone known as pipestone, used by the Natives Americans to produce ceremonial pipes, and is believed to have been quarried over the past 300 years.   It was established as a National Monument by an act of Congress on August 25, 1937, while also reaffirming the quarrying rights of the Native Americans who continue to work the area to this day.  In addition to the visitor center having lots of interesting history about the quarries, there was also a demonstration area that featured Native Americans actually working the stone into various artifacts.  One particular gentleman featured here (at right, top left) produced this beautiful and very intricate ceremonial pipe with a bear.  I took the almost mile loop trail hike through the park, and saw lots of rock, an actual quarry (at right, bottom right), and even their version of the iconic New Hampshire Old Man of the Mountain – what they call Old Stone Face (at right, top and center right).  The target pipestone is generally found in veins, and sits beneath some 6 or more feet of hard quartzite – requiring lots of digging, rock cracking and moving,  and generally lots of hard labor.  A  very interesting National Monument!

Devils Tower, WY

My next stop of any significance is in the town of Devils Tower, WY.  While seemingly not technically a town, the area that features the iconic Devils Tower National Monument is situated between the towns of Carlile Junction and Hulett – in Crook County.  This county is very sparsely populated with just over 7,000 residents among its 2,800 square mile geographic area, making it the third least populated county in the state.  I can certainly vouch for the scarcity of civilization around here.  Besides the tower itself, there’s really not too much to see around here.

But the tower was certainly spectacular!  And my nearby KOA campground site offered amazing scenic views of the tower – including the picture featured at the top of this blog.  My brother Gerry arrived soon after I did, and spent a couple nights with me taking in the sites.  Devils Tower National Monument was the very first United States national monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt.  Besides the Tower itself, the park includes over 1,300 acres of surrounding land.  This monument was truly spectacular to see.  It stands 867 feet from summit to base, with the top being about the size of a football field and covered in plants. Gerry and I took a mile and a half hike along the Tower Trail which encircles the entire Tower.  It turned out to be quite the test of our endurance as it had lots of elevation changes, requiring some pretty steep climbs along the way.  But we made it out alive, and were rewarded with achieving 5,000 steps for the day (not to mention the 7 virtual flights of stairs we climbed).  I went back to the park the following day alone after Gerry had already departed, to see a few more of its features.  This included a large field of cute prairie dogs, and this art piece titled the Circle of Sacred Smoke.  Native Americans consider the Tower to be a sacred place and this art piece represents a puff of smoke from a ceremonial pipe.  It also makes for an interesting piece to use to frame Devils Tower for an interesting photo.  Thanks for the visit Gerry, and I’m looking forward to catching up with you again when I arrive in WA.

As noted, the connections which tie the American Indian to Devils Tower are long standing.  Historical stories explain not only the creation of the Tower, but also its significance to their culture.  Natives celebrate this connection to this day with various activities and ceremonies. One of the common rituals is the placing of  prayer offerings. These colorful cloths (pictured at right, center and bottom right) are placed on trees all throughout surrounding the tower.  These cloths represent a person making an offering, a request, or simply in remembrance of a person or place.

Besides hiking, another activity popular among Tower visitors is to climb it.  It is estimated that just about 1% of the monuments 500,000 annual visitors will scale this behemoth.  While Gerry and I were on the Tower Trail, we spotted a couple of these crazy adrenaline junkies working their way up (pointed to on the full scale picture, and also zoomed in on with the other picture).  Both Gerry and I were happily and unapologetically part of the 99% sane crowd and opted not to attempt the assent.

One of the fun things that the Devils Tower KOA campground does each and every night is a showing of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  This 1977 classic science fiction drama was written and  directed by Steven Spielberg, and staring Richard Dreyfuss and hottie Teri Garr.  Filming took place in Burbank, California; Devils Tower National Monument here in Wyoming; and some old hangars at the former Brookley Air Force Base in Mobile, Alabama.  The movie tells the story of life changing events for Roy Neary (played by Dreyfuss) after encountering a UFO, and more so when a 3yr old boy was abducted by one of the flying objects.  The government got involved and developed a landing point for the UFO mother ship – namely atop Devils Tower.  What makes the viewing of the movie so much more enjoyable at the campground is that as you can see from the pictures at left, the actual Devils Tower is fully visible right behind the movie being played.  Certainly no doubt the best way to watch this old classic film.

On my last day in the area, I took a trip to the north east to visit the town of Hulett.  Frankly, with a population of around 300 residents, it’s really not much of a town.  I got there on a Sunday and as you might expect, most everyting, including the one restaurant diner and the ice cream shop, were all closed.  But, I actually went there to visit the Rogues Gallery and Old West Museum – which was open.  It’s a combination antique store, and public display museum of owner’s Bob Coronato art pieces.  He’s actually quite the prolific artist, and had a number of his works on display.  Also on display was quite the collection of western and Indian artifacts.  A truly stunning piece was this paintaing of an Indian Chief wrapped up in an American flag.  This is a duplicate painting that Bob did – the original now hanging in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.  I chatted with Bob a bit, who indicated he works here at his gallery during the busy tourist season, and travels elsewhere during the off season.  I made a comment related to how busy he gets, and he informed me that he sees upwards of 100 or more visitors per day.  Pretty darn good for a town with only 300 residents!

Hardin, MT

My next stop takes me to Hardin MT – about 30 miles east of Billings. I had actually been to Hardin last year when I did my MT, ID and AZ tour.  I was a bit surprised to see that there were several Roadside America items that I had not seen in Billings.  Given that I was nearby last year, why didn’t I see them then?  Well, I went back to my blog from last year where my memory was refreshed.  I had gone into Billings to do these Roadside items, but started to feel ill, so I cancelled and headed back to the RV.  I even made mention that I’ll have to come back another time.  Well, here I am so lets get to it!

Before I can start playing tourist, I needed to take care of a few things first.  Back when I was in Sioux Falls, I had gone out to dinner one evening, and after finishing, I got into my truck to go back to the RV.  When I closed my drivers side door, the window on the rear passenger side door shattered.  To this day, I still have no clue as to why that happened.  I had originally made plans to have it fixed in Sioux Falls, but the window they were going to have shipped in turned out to be broken in the warehouse, and getting another one from another warehouse would not happen quick enough before I was scheduled to leave.  So, I looked ahead in my travel plans to see when I would next be near a sizeable enough town that could handle the replacement.  Devils Tower was out of the question as there’s no nationwide glass repair shop around there for over 250 miles.  So, I would have to wait until I got near the big town of Billings before I could get this fixed.  I called ahead, had the window ordered and ready, and made the appointment for the morning following my arrival.  So, I had to drive around for just over a week with the opening taped up and covered with plastic.  But when I arrived at my scheduled appointment, the shop had my window ready, and made quick work of getting it installed.  They even vacuumed out all the shards of broken glass from the back and front passanger seat areas.  So chock up my first unplanned maintenance item, and a $500 hit to my maintenance reserve budget.  Geez – it never ends!

And not to be outdone by the broken window, I also had to replace one of the tires on my RV.  Before I left for last year’s adventure, I put 4 brand new tires on the RV.  I used the same brand (Sailun) that I had put on five years prior, and had very good experience with.  Well, after hooking up the RV to head out from Sioux Falls, I happened to notice some uneven wear on the outside of one of the tires – so much so that the tread had fully depleted, and one of the inner bands was starting to show.  Again, I have no idea why this particular tire was wearing out so quickly – especially since the remaining three tires were perfectly fine.  I didn’t want to risk running on this tire for any extended period for fear of a blowout, so I decided to just go ahead and replace it with a new one.  Again, I looked ahead in my travel plans, and once again, Billings was going to be my best shot.  I called the tire shop, ordered the tire, and made arrangements to have it replaced on the moring of my departure out of the area.  It was convenient as I was literally passing by the shop on my way out, so that way, I could get it done early in the morning, then continue on my way to my next destination.  That is what I did, and it worked out perfectly.  I was in and out of there in just about an hour, and then well on my way.  I was, however, just over $300 lighter in my maintenance reserve budget!

So, I actually did make it into Billings for a bit of touristy activity.  First up was a visit to a shoe sales and repair place, that happened to have a shoe/boot from famed world’s tallest man Robert Wadlow.  This giant of a man who stood 8 feet, 11 inches tall, wore a size 37 AA shoe.   This thing was huge!  Next, at the Chamber of Commerce and Montana Visitor Center building was this bronze sculpture representing the Montana Great Centennial Cattle Drive.  This was in celebration of the 1989 cattle drive reenactment where 2,800 longhorn cattle were driven across Montana from Roundup to Billings – a 6-day 50 mile trek.  I’ll bet that event caused some traffice jams!  I then proceeded to a local auto repair place that had a couple of cool statues.  Standing over 10 feet tall, these steele square-sholdered titans are known as “Tranny Man” and “Front End Man” (at left, top right).  These were created by local Billings artist Lyndon Fayne Pomeroy.  Apparently, there are several other tall steel giants around Billings that were also created by Pomeroy.  Next I visited Boothill Cemetary, where a stone cairn monument sits atop the hill.  The hill serves as the final resting spot for many folks from the late 1800s, though lacking any formal individual monument or identification.  Often, those who died back then, mostly from disease, accidents, or murder, were placed here on the hill in shallow graves.   They were often burried with their boots on.  Hence, the nickname Boothill.  Last up in my Billings tour was a visit to yet another Muffler Man.  This one, holding a tire, sits outside the L.P. Anderson Tire Factory.  Yet another good use of these very popular fiberglass figures.

Three Forks, MT

Yet another place that I stayed last year.  In fact, I’m in the exact same campground that I was in back then.  But, it wasn’t all fun and games getting here.  As I was packing up and getting ready to depart Hardin, the last step in the process is to raise the front of the RV so that I can back the truck up and get hooked in.  Well, as I was raising the RV, one of the front landing gear legs failed and collapsed.  Certainly not a good thing!  With that leg out of comission, I had no way to use the standard lifting capability of the RV in order to get it on the truck.  So, I pulled out the hydraulic jack used for tire changes from my truck, and used it to lift the side of the RV that had failed just high enough in order to get the truck connected.  While this solved my immediate problem, I’d have another issue when I arrived in Three Forks as I would not be able to easily get the RV off the truck.  Since I was going to be stopping in Billings anyway (to get the RV tire replaced), I figured I could stop at the Camping World there and hopefully they would have the replacement landing leg that I needed.  Well, bad luck, they did not.  I called a couple other RV stores in the area, and got the same results.  So, I would have to order the replacement from Amazon, and have it shipped directly to the campground at my next stop in Three Forks.  Sadly it was July 3rd, just before a holiday weekend, so delivery was going to be longer than their standard 2-day.  It would not be until Monday that it would arrive – which also happens to be the day I was scheduled to leave.  So, I made arrangements with the campground owners to get in a site that would allow me to leave the truck connected to the RV for my entire stay (4 nights), with a possible late departure on Monday depending on when the package was delivered.  And for those keeping score, that’s another $500 stripped from my maintenance budget, not including any extra $’s I may have to pay for a late departure, or worst case, an additional nights stay.  Overall, it was a good thing I was here last year, and pretty much had checked off all the things there were to see back then.  So now, I have a 4-day stuck here in the campground stay that I’ll have to occupy myself with.  Fortunately, the writing of this blog consumed some of the time, along with a few other techie projects for the community website that I help maintain.  That, a bit of reading, catching up on laundry, and some afternoon naps, pretty much filled in the rest of the time.  It certainly was relaxing!

As it turns out, the package did arrive at the local post office by Monday morning, but they refused to deliver it.  I received a notice on my phone at 7:35 am that indicated they attempted delivery, but the mailbox was full. That was surely a bunch of BS!  Apparently, this has been an ongoing issue for the KOA and the post office not delivering packages. Fortunately, one of the KOA staff members offered to drive me into town to get my package, along with about 5 of their own.  We got there right at 9am, got the package, and back to the campground. I commenced to getting it installed, and got it done just in time to allow me to leave by the 11am deadline. I won’t know until I arrive at my next destination to see if the new landing gear is working properly.

Well, among all this bad news regarding maintenance issues, at least there is some ray of sunshine peaking out through the clouds.  The two new air conditioners I had installed prior to leaving Florida have been working great!  Especially when I got caught in that heat wave a couple weeks ago that was traversing across the country in triple digit heat, the new ACs did their job and kept me nice and comfy cool.  It certainly is nice when things work as they should.  But I do get it!  My RV is 10 years old, and the truck is 13 years old.  Things are going to break and maintenance is just part of the game.  But I sure would appreciate having some continued good fortune being maintenance free in the coming weeks and months.  Let’s hope!

Missoula, MT

So as I continue westward, my next stop takes me to Missoula, MT.  I arrived, got checked in at the office, then proceeded to my designated camp site – all the long thinking about that stupid landing gear failure, and hoping this new replacement will be working correctly.  Well, Lady Luck was certainly by my side on this one.  Not only was I able to easily and quickly raise the RV using the landing gear in order to remove the truck, the Auto Level feature which had mostly been failing for quite some time, roared into service and successfully positioned the RV at perfectly level using the four power jacks.  Wow!  Guess I should have replaced that bad landing gear leg a long time ago (oops)!

So now I’m back playing tourist.  There were a few places to check out in this area.  Downtown Missoula had a couple of Roadside oddities including this large sprawled out cat (at right, center right) that sits in front of a municipal parking garage.  Known as “Cattin’ Around”, he was sculpted from 1.5 tons of concrete in 1992 by artist Mike Hollern.  Apparently, his curved back fills with water in the rain, and serves as a birdbath.  Pretty cool!  Next is this giant silver high heel shoe that sits atop a giant pedestal and is the official attraction to the Silver Slipper Sports Bar.  Speaking of bar attractions, this bikini-clad cowgirl sitting in a beer mug sits atop the front entrance to KT’s Hayloft Saloon.  This outdoor version is from 2022, and replaced a smaller, and less-clothed busty version that is now safely stored inside.  Fear not, I kept my photos uniquely positioned to keep them to a mostly PG rating.  Last up, I visited the Elk County Visitor Center, which ironically has an elk conservation mission, yet has its walls covered in stuffed elk heads.  Seems to me that the conservation is not going so well – especially for those elk who are hung on the walls.

Next, I visited the Missoula Smokejumpers visitors center.  I knew very little about smokejumping, so I figured this would be an interesting stop.  And indeed it was.  These specially trained men and women firefighters parachute into remote wildfires to provide quick response to the blaze, while avoiding what would otherwise be a multi-mile hike. Armed only with simple axes and shovels, they dig trenches around a fire’s perimeter thus isolating it from its fuel source.  Now that sure does take someone special. The exhibits included how the jumpers are outfitted – even showing the kinds of food and snacks they take with them as well as an aluminum foil fireproof tent that they may use for rest or emergency protection.  There was even a fully outfitted fire lookout shack that would normally exist high on a mountain top where a lookout volunteer would live for extended periods of time, keeping a watchful eye for any signs of smoke or fire.  Again, it would certainly take a special breed to survive in a job that has this isolation type of atmosphere.  Hats off to all of them!

Next, I headed north of Missoula about 30 miles to check out a couple of very interesting places.  First up was this gem – St. Ignatius Mission Parish.  This catholic church was built in 1891, but the establishment of catholic religion and school educational services actually began in the mid 1800s at the request of several local Indian tribes.  Certainly an unusual circumstance.  But what makes this church extra special is the artwork that resides therein.  Some have noted it to be among the top three beautiful churches in the world. While that may be slightly overstated, it was pretty darn beautiful. Just over the course of 14 months, a Jesuit Brother named Joseph Carignano painted 58 pieces of art all over the ceilings and walls of the church.  Making this even extra odd is that Br Carignano had no formal training as an artist, and in fact was actually the mission cook.  He did all this amazing work in his spare time.  Absolutely incredible!

Now switching gears, and even religions, my last stop in the area takes me to this Buddhist Temple known as the Garden of One Thousand Buddhas.  While I didn’t actually count them for verification, it would certainly seem plausible that there were in fact one thousand (or more) Buddhas here.  This public park, botanical garden, and Buddhist center in the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism literally sits in the middle of nowhere Montana.  It is said to be a garden that aligns positive properties of the physical world in a sacred architectural arrangement based on the eight-spoked Dharma wheel.  Frankly, none of that makes a lot of sense to me, but I assume it is meaningful to the practicing Buddhists.  It was however, an interesting place to walk around and enjoy the spiritual reflection qualities that it exudes.  In the center of the spoked wheel sits this giant artifact (at right, top left) that clearly represents something special.  What I found to actually be more interesting where the hundreds of what I believed to be swallows that live in the mud nests (at left, bottom right) they’ve built up in the overhang of this central figure.  Now you certainly don’t see that every day!

Now as I wrap up this edition of the blog, I wanted to pay special tribute to the campground that I stayed in here in Missoula.  I don’t often write about the campgrounds that make up my temporary homes as I travel, as they typically don’t offer anything of particular significance.  But this one was so special and so beautiful that I thought it deserved some recognition.  As you might imagine, I’ve been to quite a few different campgrounds in my 7+ years of full time RV travel (not to mention the prior 30+ years of just recreational camping).  By a wide margin, Jim and Mary’s RV Park in Missoula, MT is the absolute most beautiful and best kept of them all.  Its beauty starts when you pull in at the entrance to stop in at the office to sign in (at right, top), then carries out throughout the entire campground with these beautiful gardens nestled in and among the camp sites.  Also, they have some of the largest lush green grass areas separating each of their RV guests.  Sadly I was only here for two nights, but I certainly could have enjoyed staying here much longer.  Maybe next time I’m passing through I’ll book a longer stay so that I can simply enjoy the colorful and serene gardens that they offer.  Well done Jim and Mary!

Final Thoughts

Well, it seems I once again got a bit long winded and made this blog a tad lengthy.  But, there was a lot to tell, and I hope you enjoyed it (also considering I had those aforementioned four days of being stuck in the campground).  As I wrap up this leg of my journey, I’m fortunate to have reached another milestone.  While in Missoula I completed checking off visits to over 1000 Roadside America attractions – 1,004 to be exact.  As you can see from my Roadside pin map here, I’ve done a pretty good job saturating visits all across the country – that is except the far pacific west coast which I will be tackleing in the coming months.  So I have to say that my 7+ years of being a full-time RV nomad has most certainly taken me to some of the most interesting, and sometimes quirky places to see.  I’m proud of what I’ve achieved so far, and look forward to at least a couple more years of this lifestyle. So, stay tuned for more travel blogs in the future. Until then, be well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!