Devil's Tower & The Chip

We have been blessed with the weather on this trip, unless you are person who dislikes extreme heat because that is one thing we aren't running short of, nor are we likely to. By the time we made it onto I-90 heading east the temperature was already on the low 80s; comfortable rising weather after our experiences of the past several days.

The speed limit in Wyoming is 80 mph, and we usually travel at about 75 mph or so and yet there are people who pass us as if we were riding on a country road. But, we are getting closer to Sturgis and one thing that goes with Sturgis is police. In the forty miles that we rode on the Interstate we saw two state troopers who had pulled over speeders and it could have been much more from what we saw.

One of the sights we wanted to see on our way into Sturgis was The Devil's Tower, a volcanic plug that rises hundreds of feet over the surrounding landscape. If you have ever seen the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, you will have seen the Devil's Tower. It is the rock that the alien spaceship hovered over until the main character could make it there. It is an impressive sight and as you approach you can see it for miles.

The Devil's Tower from a viewpoint

Explanation of The Devil's Tower's origins & importance

H-Ds in front of The Devil's Tower

The Devil's Tower

Close up of The Devil's Tower

Red rock formations near The Devil's Tower

Garry at The Devil's Tower



The little town of Hulett, WY  is nine miles further on, and in conjunction with the Black Hills Rally it has Hulett Bike week. It's like Sturgis on a much smaller scale. One of the highlights every time I ride through is the 1922 Harley-Davidson JD model with sidecar. It is a beautiful green colour and is in immaculate condition. I joked that this motorcycle was made in the same year that my dad was born but it is in considerably better condition.

1922 Model JD Harley-Davidson with sidecar



There is a wide variety of motorcycles here and most of them look pretty good. I'm seeing quite a large number of Indian motorcycles here this year. The company seems to be making some reak inroads into the market for buyers who want a cruiser but want to be an American made alternative to Harley-Davidson.

Boss Hoss motorcycle

Boss Hoss 502 horsepower V-8 engine

Indian motorcycle detail

 Indian hief motorcycle

On the main street of Hulett I saw a biker patch that I had never seen before. On talking to the guy who was wearing it he said that he had been in the Marines but had left in 2012. He seemed to we with a guy that I suspected was his father. When they answered a question or made a statement it ended with, "Yessir," or "Nosir", one word and other comments had the word 'Sir ' in them somewhere. They seemed to be pretty good people.

Former US Marine with unit patch

The older man offered to take our photo and when he did he corralled two young ladies who were walking by. They willingly joined us and we had two photos of us with young ladies who had very nice tails. Bonus for the day!

Garry and me with 'foxy' ladies in Hulett, WY

Just had to put two of these pics here

From there we rode thirty-five miles to the village of Aladdin, population 15, with a general store and gas pumps. The store has been in business for 115 years and it looks like it with the time ceiling and old glass display cases. I met a woman who was wearing a top hat so I complimented her on her hat and got a photo. There were at least two hundred motorcycles parked there. Just a harbinger of things to come.

Liar's bench at the Mercantile in Aladdin, WY

Lady with a cool hat in Aladdin, WY



Since riding through Sturgis is a horrendous experience in one hundred degree Fahrenheit heat over a hot motorcycle engine, we elected to take a roundabout route and rode through Belle Fouche and Newell and into the 'Chip' with  minimum of difficulty. Because there are more than a million people expected here in Sturgis some of the big saloons have opened in campgrounds. We passed the Broken Spoke Saloon seven miles out of Sturgis in the middle of a field, and there were several others as well.

Our campsite at 'The Chip'

More of our pretty basic campsite at 'The Chip'



Checking in wasn't a problem, but finding a campsite was. Almost every available campsite was occupied but we finally found a level spot on some low ground beside a marshy area. Others had already camped there but there was no problem setting up. Since we had no chairs we wandered up to the Crossroads where there are vendors and bars as well as a stage. Trophies for the best custom bikes were being given out by an Evel Kneivel sort of guy who is going to jump a Harley-Davidson XR750 motorcycle over twenty-two cars.

We had just set up our campsite when a woman came by offering Sturgis hats for a donation to the local food bank. Each of us forked over twenty dollars for a hat and I was pleased with the one I ended up with after I exchanged my original hat. Here it is.

My spectacular Sturgis 75th Anniversary hat.

We met two guys who were here from Vermont. One guy owns a record store and travels to these events regularly. He is from New York but he is getting to have a pretty strong Vermont accent. 

One of the reasons we stay at the 'Chip' is for the music. On Monday night there were three acts; Nazareth, Dee Snyder for Twisted Sister, and Godsmack. We listened to Nazareth mostly from our campsite them made out way to the ampitheatre to hear Dee Snyder. He put on a great show that included a lot of Twisted Sister songs, a few from a group he was in called Widowmaker and some Led Zeppelin covers. He's no Robert Plant & his guitarist was no Jimmy Page, but they were credible covers.

When Godsmack began their set we felt a few raindrops at the beginning of the third song so we bailed and raced back to our tents. Just as we arrived the rain began. It was heavy! I haven't often been in such torrential rain and even fewer times in a tent, but the tent held so while everyone around us got wet, Garry and I sailed through comfortable and dry. Out neighbours hadn't even bothered to put the fly on their tent and were waterlogged when they returned from the concert. Since they were returning to Oklahoma on Tuesday, they slept in their trucks overnight.

Except for the rain our first day at the Buffalo Chip went very well and we're looking forward to getting into it tomorrow.