Close Encounters of the Very Cold Kind

Our arrival at Devils Tower / Bear Lodge couldn’t have been much better timed, as the snow began just as we were pulling off the interstate. One of the patterns we’ve fallen into is Zeynep reading the Wikipedia entry for wherever we’re going, in this case learning about theories that Devils Tower / Bear Lodge is an “igneous intrusion” into the surrounding, softer rock layers. Which led Zeynep to exclaim, “It’s like a big poke!” Indeed.

Our biggest concern as we drove into this “unseasonable” storm was the risk of frozen pipes in the Airstream, and if we had enough propane to keep our little furnace running. So the first night we tucked in, cranked up the heat, and hoped for the best. We awoke the next morning to a beautiful snowy landscape, tons of propane still in the tanks, and bitterly cold temperatures outside (12F/-11C).

We passed the morning with books and video games, and a quick trip into the park proper to visit the ranger station and get a closer look at the Big Poke. It’s really quite a thing to see.

In the evening we decided to go on a grand adventure, a whopping nine miles down the road to Hulett, Wyoming, population 416. There we found a Ponderosa Cafe, which at first glance I thought was the cheap steakhouse chain of my youth, but fortunately was a charming local joint. We had big bowls of “Mountain Man Chili,” which we were told after the fact had antelope, wild boar, bison, elk, and venison. I could’ve done without the explanation, but it was damn tasty. We also had a small world moment when the very kind waitress, after asking if Zeynep’s accent was German, told us her son is a student at the South Dakota School of Mines and had very recently spent some time in Eastern Turkey on a geological dig.

At this point there was nothing left to do but, naturally, watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a first viewing for Zeynep. Richard Dreyfuss didn’t age much from that point in his career, but the dopey, helpless female characters haven’t aged quite as well. Still, a treat to watch the film from the base of the Big Poke.

All told we probably got six inches of snow during the storm, with drifts up to ten inches. The Airstream held up magnificently, with only one moment of slight terror when the hitch lock was found to be solidly frozen in place. (A cup of hot coffee poured over did the trick.) We read later that some parts of the Dakotas got four feet (!!), which made our situation feel positively balmy.

The next morning we packed up and got on the still slightly-messy roads, but once we got back on the Interstate it was smooth sailing. Our destination was Billings, Montana, a one-night stop before Bozeman and Yellowstone. In Billings we stayed at the nation’s first KOA, where I met Marcus and his vintage Airstream International, which he told me all about at great length and in charming detail. We also had our first campfire of the trip, which took the storm’s tail-end freezing temperatures up to almost-acceptable. For all of the trepidation we felt about this unexpected storm, the last few chilly days ended up being quite beautiful and wonderful.