I had forgotten that I’d started to write about this trip – way back at Cape Canaveral at the end of June.  Here it is August 10.  So much has happened that I am hoping I can remember most of it – at least the highlights.  It might help me to go backwards!

So, here we are in a little town called Moreland, Wyoming.  We’re in a small campground for the night, on our way to Cody.  The drive from Devil’s Tower today was through Big Horn National Forest.  We climbed to 9,666 feet before the road began its steep twists and turns, plummeting to a mere 4,000 feet.  Gorgeous.  Scary.

But let’s go back to Devil’s Tower.  This was on my ‘list’. Introduced to the iconic national monument via the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I have felt drawn to the place ever since – over 40 years ago.  As you drive toward the location – through fields and hills – from South Dakota, you start looking for it.  And then, suddenly, there it is.

Alone in its magnificence.  Not an awful lot on the way – a couple of small (REALLY SMALL) towns, that’s about it.  The campground is literally at Devil’s Tower, on the sight where (in the movie) the military was stationed to protect the covert operation at the top of the Tower.  A couple of the buildings are there still – the Post Office and a long, tan building that is now the Devil’s Tower Trading Post.  We drove up the mountain – about 3 miles – to the Visitor’s Center.  It was packed with ‘tourists’, primarily motorcyclists from the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  More about that later.

For those able, there is a walking path around the base of the Tower – about a mile.  I was happy just to take photos and drink in the energy of that remarkable edifice.  There are several stories about how it was formed – but I like the one about the huge bear that was trying to get to the people on the top – hence the claw-like marks all around the sides.  Why not?
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On the road up, there is a large field which is home to who knows how many Prairie Dogs.  I wasn’t content to watch them from the road; I walked down one of the paths into the field and they didn’t seem to mind.  In fact, I sat down on the ground and several of them came around to check me out.  Adorable little creatures, crafty enough to build their underground homes, replete with flood shelters – air trapped spaces where they can go in case their homes fill with water.  Smart.  They like to make their chattering little sounds and they kiss a lot.  I was smitten.

Back to the mountain.  I couldn’t make just one trip up there, so returned at sunset – and was rewarded with quiet and the colors painted on the Tower by the setting sun.  No, I did not have any encounters with kindly creatures from another galaxy.  But, I felt the energy of the space.  The spirituality of it.

It is a sacred place to local Indian Tribes and you can feel why. Perhaps endowed with some mystical qualities of its own.  Perhaps simply reflecting the adoration bestowed on it for centuries.

Either way, it is a very special place.