Devils Tower National Monument

Early Sunday morning, Sept. 12, we headed from Sheridan, Wyoming, to Devils Tower National Monument, famous for its role in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Ray had read something saying that you can view the monument from the road for free. We figured we'd drive by, snap some photos, and head for the hills--the Black Hills.

So, we pulled off at the spot designated for taking photos. My first shot, with my 18-55 mm lens, made it look rather puny in the wide open spaces. Not what I expected at all.

Then I put on my friend Ike's 70-300 mm lens and brought it in closer (but it was windy and I had trouble holding the camera steady enough without a tripod, which I was usually too hurried to use).

Still not so impressive. Maybe we'd find a road that gets us closer. When we drove on down the road and turned toward the tower, we realized it was part of the National Parks system. An unexpected opportunity to use Ray's NPS senior pass ($10 lifetime investment that got us in to all the National Parks that charged a fee).

What was supposed to take less than an hour wound up taking us about three hours. All I can say is, if you ever go to Devils Tower, spring for the admission price to the park. It's phenomenal up close. And, yes, the sky really was that blue.

We decided to take the Tower Trail, a 1.5 mile hike that takes you around the entire tower. Each side of the tower had something new to offer. First, a reminder that this place is held sacred by many Native Americans, especially in the Plains tribes.

Ray posed at the base of the trail.

And off we went.

To go beyond the boulders at the base of the tower requires registration with the National Park Service (probably because only rock climbers go beyond there--and the NPS probably needs to know how to contact next of kin if they don't make it up and back safely).

Can you see the climbers in this one? (You really can only see one, because one is behind the other.) Look closely.

In case you didn't see him, here's a close-up. Now you'd think only these two would be crazy enough to do this, but every side had a few climbers. I'm more than a little afraid of heights, so I just don't see the attraction.

I must have a thing for dead trees, but this one really caught my attention.

On this side of the tower, I spotted a climber midway between "shelves" (wearing a light green jacket). But when I blew up the photo, there actually were SIX in the photo! First, the full shot.

Now for the closeup. Can you find them all?

About halfway around the tower, we came upon some viewing tubes (stationary so that you couldn't miss the ladder, although it still was hard to see) and this sign.

Here's a closeup of the historic ladder (horizontally about halfway across the photo, at a diagonal line with the "ribs" of the tower). Check it out to the right--yet another climber! (They don't let you use the ladder any more.) I read that it usually takes 4-6 hours to climb the tower, although someone did it in 18 minutes once.

Yep, another dead tree. You wonder what caused the trunk bark to look so twisted.

As I said earlier, the Plains Indians treat this as sacred place, and we saw prayer cloths like this one in trees all around the tower. Visitors are cautioned not to disturb them.

About three-fourths of the way around the tower, there were more trees. Right about now, we're thinking 1.5 miles is longer than we thought.

When I read this marker, I thought, "Oh, my! The tower is crumbling and may not be here much longer!"

Then I read the REST of the story.

Phew! I guess I have time to pose for a photo near where the loop trail meets up with where we began.

From here, we drove on to Hill City, So. Dakota. We thought we had a reservation at the Comfort Inn, but it didn't go through with the online booking site. (Always make sure you get a confirmation!) So, Ray looked at the travel book and we found a nice locally owned place called the Lantern Inn. Great people own it and we're glad that we got to stay there. Liked it so much, we stayed another night so we'd have a full day Monday to enjoy the 1880 Train and the Crazy Horse Memorial. I'll save that for another blog.

Moose on the Loose in the Bighorns

We left Montana for the last time via US 310 into Wyoming. At Cowley, we picked up the Medicine Wheel Passage Scenic Byway (US 14A East). We hadn't gone too far before Ray said, "There's something crossing the road ahead." Being used to free range country, I figured it would be a cow. He thought it was a moose, but I had given up "shooting" a moose, not having seen a single one since we'd started the trip.

But as I rounded the curve, sure enough, it was a MOOSE! As it came to the road, it stopped and looked in our direction. I was driving, but reached for the camera and got off three shots.

Another car approached it from the other side.

And one more before it sauntered into the woods.

While I drove, Ray snapped some photos of the passing landscape through the passenger window and windshield. In the early 1960s, Ray and his parents had driven west and came eastward through the Bighorn Mountains. But it didn't look the same as they had seen it in the early summer, with snow and wildflowers. Now it was dry and arid. If not for the evergreens, it would have been a barren-looking landscape.

We didn't really see much snow in the Bighorns. Perhaps it was on the northern sides of the slopes and we were on the southern sides. If we'd gone to the Medicine Wheel Passage, we probably would have found snow. But it was getting late and we were trying to get to Sheridan, Wyo., for the night. So we just kept driving.


We pulled over at a rest stop, where a fellow traveler with an accent asked us if there were any hotels on the road ahead. I asked where he was from, and he said Sweden. He was driving through the mountains and planning to end up in Salt Lake City before flying home. Ray mentioned that his cousin married a man with recent roots in Sweden, but we couldn't remember where they were from.

These rocks look small until you realize that the green spiky vegetation are tall evergreens. And the lighter-colored trees dotting the landscape are aspens. They're turning lighter, but not the brilliant yellow they soon will be.

The upthrust of the mountains is clear jutting out among the evergreens.

You can see yet another winding road ahead of us. The populated area in the upper-lefthand side of the photo is the town of Dayton, Wyoming. We're about the leave the Bighorn Mountains. As we drove down the mountain, the rock formations were labeled, showing the various time periods in which they were formed, including the Pennsylvanian Era. (Ray was born in Pennsylvania, which is why it caught my eye.)

Speaking of Ray, here he is!

Before we headed for Sheridan, I snapped one more shot of this interesting looking tree skeleton.

Next up, we get to use Ray's National Parks senior pass one last time (for this trip, at least)--Devils Tower, a National Monument in northeast Wyoming, near Hulett.

What a Difference a Day Makes--Recrossing the Beartooth Pass and the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway

We left Red Lodge, Montana, early Saturday morning (Sept. 11) and headed back over the Beartooth Mountains. The sky was as blue as could be, no sign of the snowstorm the night before.

We stopped a few miles outside of town to snap some photos of the river. (Not sure which river it was, but am sure it's a tributary of the Yellowstone River. It was on the right-hand side of the road--US 212--southwest of town.)

The road ahead looked promising. See what I said about a blue sky?

Check out the rock slide catcher. (I'm sure that's not what it's called, but it gets the idea across.)

Here's the closeup. It's made of steel. Looks like chainmail, reinforced with a layer of steel rings.

While driving over the mountain passes in the snowstorm was exciting and beautiful, these were the views we expected when we put this route on our itinerary.

Lakes dot the countryside, between the mountain peaks.

The ice and snow were melting in the warm sun, but it looks like it got worse overnight, judging by how much was left.

Don't look down. There were lots of places without guardrails where I, for one, would have appreciated them. The poles on the side of the road are to help snow plows find the road when it's covered in snow. (The other side has similar poles, as seen in the photo above.)

I'm not sure what this is for. It's not a ski lift. Any ideas?

Not too long before the Bear's Tooth, we came across this feller buried up to his waist in snow. Looks like there was some fun had on the mountain last night (or early this morning).

What a cutie.

Remember the photo at Bear's Tooth last night (where the couple were taking a photo)? Well, here's what the Bear's Tooth looks like (this one, at least--I guess there may be others that count as bear's teeth, too).

This time, we stopped at the pulloff at West Summit--and the wind blew my door shut with such force, I'd have broken my legs if I hadn't caught it before it hit them.

See how the wind is blowing my pants and hair? It was hard to stand upright.

We descend around sharp curves.

Here comes a snow plow. As you enter the scenic highway, there are signs informing you that snowplows do not plow after about 4 p.m.and before 8 a.m. Sometime in September, the road/pass will close for the season.

The mountains seemed to go on forever. Around every mountain, we'd see the range stretching from one side of the horizon to the other.

Check out the long and winding road.

Now this is a serious-looking snow plow. Check out those claws! (It was parked at a turnout, though, because the snow wasn't deep enough for this kind of power.)

As we neared the turnoff for the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, we stopped to capture this photo of a pretty meadow with Yellowstone in the background.

Another high peak off to the west, but soon we'd be turning east toward the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming.

Yet another of the great scenic highways of America's West. This is northeast of Yellowstone, taking us to the Bighorn Mountains.

We were too early for large displays of golden aspens (that will come in the next few weeks), but I noticed that the seedlings and saplings turned golden early, so stopped for a bit of fall color.

We came upon the highest bridge in Wyoming--the Sunlight Bridge (click here to see what it looks like when you aren't standing on it)--and stopped to take some photos. I'm not sure what other activities they were prohibiting with this sign.

Looking down (with the girders of the bridge showing for perspective) onto Sunlight Creek.

Here was the view of Sunlight Creek from the other side of the bridge.

At a pulloff high up one of the peaks, we stopped and I found this sculpture depicting the Nez Perce. Chief Joseph's band of non-treaty Nez Perce fought in Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho to avoid being put on a reservation. Of course, they lost the war ultimately, and in northern Montana, Chief Joseph uttered his famous words: "...I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever." Then he surrendered his people to a reservation in Idaho. 

Here's a photo taken at this turnout. Below (right side) is the road we had just traveled to get to this lookout.

Further down the mountain, as the terrain began to level out, we saw this butte in the distance. We later discovered it was two different buttes, not one as they appeared here.

These red rocks were interesting. We could see snowcapped mountains off in the distance. These may have been the Bighorn Mountains.

Here you can see the two separate buttes.

We drove through a lot of open range areas where cows and horses roamed free, but someone did some serious fencing along this road (northern Wyoming, before getting back into Montana, I believe).

These ranches looked more like the desert to me. Not much rainfall here.

We crossed into Montana and outside Belfry there was a beautiful valley with farmland.

We got a kick out of the school sign.

On a much more somber note, before leaving Montana for the last time, I wanted to photograph one of the white crosses placed by the American Legion of Montana to indicate where roadside fatalities had occurred. For reference, here's the sign I took a photo of as we were entering Montana on the Beartooth Scenic Byway Friday night.

I had noticed the uniform markers from a week earlier when we first entered Montana. This marker was placed not far from the Wyoming border north of Frannie (Wyo.), as we left Montana for the last time (on this trip, at least). A loved one had place on it an autumn wreath.

Here's a parting shot taken in Montana, with the promise of the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming to come, where I would FINALLY get my moose.