Location: Devil’s Tower, WY
This morning, we slept until we couldn’t sleep any more. Afterwards, we gathered our things, said goodbye (again) to Bryan and hit the road. Our first stop was Bear Butte State Park, so Data could exhaust himself running around like a psycho at the lake. After he was sufficiently filthy, we stopped at Pizza Ranch for lunch. Although it’s a chain with locations throughout areas we’ve been over the last few weeks, we had never seen one before. We were both surprised by how good it was, particularly the pizza with both mozzarella and cheddar. From there, it was Devil’s Tower or bust.
Wyoming is beautiful country (no offense, South Dakota) and the drive was roughly two hours, so it was an easy trip. We went directly to the visitor center at the base of the tower, where we stopped to admire the impressive structure. It was somewhat hot and sunny and dogs are not allowed on the trails, so we weren’t able to hike around the base of the tower, which was fine with us. The pamphlet we were given upon entry talked of a full moon hike that would take place tomorrow, but since the park is open 24 hours, we decided to look into the possibility of going on our own hike tonight. We asked a ranger, who said that would be fine. We drove back down the road a bit and stopped to take photos at the Joyner Ridge Trail.
Once at the bottom, we checked into the Devil’s Tower KOA Campground, which is less than 10 feet outside of the park. From our site, we have an unobstructed view of the tower’s north face. At 9 p.m., the campground showed Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which Julia had never seen. Those of you who have seen it will know immediately why this movie is shown every day here. Data came with us and, toward the end of the film, decided he wanted to be in my lap, for some reason.
After the movie, we came back to the car and I began taking night photos of the tower. Tonight is not only a full moon, but there is going to be a lunar eclipse in about an hour. While taking photos, we heard strange noises. Turns out, a family of deer was grazing less than 50 feet from our campsite. They are still there now. We also wanted to make s’mores, but due to the lack of humidity, campfires are not allowed. Instead, I made the most ghetto s’mores imaginable – a marshmallow stuck on a key, lit with a match. It was damn good, too.
I am going to wake Julia up in about 15 minutes and we will head back up toward the tower to view the eclipse. In the meantime, here are some photos from today. As always, click “there’s more to this” to see them all.
Devil’s Tower from our campsite. What’s weird about this photo? It’s a 20-minute exposure with the full moon as the light source. Unfortunately, some clouds in the background prevented all but one faint star (seen as a streak at the top of the image) from shining through.
Devil’s Tower from the visitor center. You may be able to see some of the many birds circling above.
A grasshopper on the Joyner Ridge trail.
Julia and I displaying our new hats at Devil’s Tower.
Another view of Devil’s Tower. Getting a little redundant at this point.
Another view.
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