Devils Tower Wyoming

flickr photo link: <USA, Oct 07>
Without gushing superlatives, this was a very special part of our trip. Ever since first watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" many, many years ago (then plenty of times since), I'd wanted to see the Devils Tower for myself. One of those all-time movie location holy grails. But Wyoming is one of those difficult places to get to. It's not like getting on a plane to Los Angeles or New York. You have to plan a journey, rent a car. You have to approach the tower, drive around it, see it from different angles, get the dawn & dusk views. It is wonderous, spectacular - different in it's physical aspect from how I'd imagined, and possibly somewhat smaller than imagined too, but sheer and mystical all the same. From outside the monument, I pictured every view of the tower from the perspective of the movie lens - putting every scene into place. We had a truly wonderful afternoon and morning here. You can't spend much more time than that really, as the activities are limited and you soon discover the location is quite remote really. There isn't a whole lot else around!
Devils Tower is a National Monument, entry US$10 for 7 days. You'll probably spend a few hours or a day, unless you want to study the prairie dogs and take every back country hike. On our first afternoon, we drove up to the visitor centre and took a quick walk up to the rock. Being off season, there was hardly anyone here. After checking things out, we parked beside a hill outside the monument, and I took loads & loads of sunset photos while I slowly froze. But it was all worth it. We ate some chips & dips and marvelled at the whole thing. Back into the car, and a short distance back to the Best Western Devils Tower Inn at Hulett. Looking like a log cabin on steroids, this was a very nice & very new motel with huge rooms and really comfortable beds. Highly recommended. If you blink, you'll miss Hulett (pop. 408). We had a burger at little tavern just down the street, then slept well while the aliens made their plans round the back of the tower, in the darkness...

After a waffle breakfast, we were back at the tower. We did the circuit walk around the base. Again, there were few people around. Some climbers sauntered past us on the path, then we watched as they scaled the east face. They looked like little ants in 'The North Face' jackets. Our experience was over, and we left the monument between 11 and 12, saying goodbye to the prairie dogs on the way out! We had a massive drive ahead of us.