THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP WHITE SNOW

So there we were buying lunch for our journey to Wyoming. Yes another 60 miles west by northwest (a sequel?) to see The Devil's Tower (famed as the location of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind). But before we begin the journey, a question or two (very easy and very hard): name the 4 presidents on Mt. Rushmore and the actual dates of their presidential service?

Another question comes to mind. Why would 2 supposedly rational people decide to head into the desolate eastern area of Wyoming the day after a major snowstorm had hit the area? (the answer has to do with 'supposedly rational'). Anyway, off we go. As we head west the snow cover definitely deepens although the Interstate is clear and mostly dry. It really doesn't matter as we pass fewer cars than we would on I88 or The Taconic. We leave the Interstate at the exit for Devils Tower - that leaves us almost 30 miles away. As we drive northwest on a lovely 2 lane road, we see nothing - no cars, no towns, no sign of any human (or otherwise) habitation (also no cellphone reception). But, the road is basically clear so we persevere and after about 27 miles, we see:

It sure does just stick straight up about 1600 feet. The unique part is that there are no other towers, mountains, buttes, mesas or high features in the area. There is a walking path around the tower but due to the 6-8 inches of snow we opted not to attempt it (just plain weak in our old age). Here are a few more images of the tower from different angles. The pictures are not in black and white. The tower is a grayish brown, it was overcast with low clouds and the snow covered most everything else.

In the vicintity of the tower we did spot an array of wildlife. Black Angus cattle stark against the snow (guess there is a ranch somewhere nearby - although never visible.A deer, totally unconcerned with our appearance: And as we were leaving we came upon a Prairie Dog village: As we were watching the Prairie Dogs, another critter (possibly a Ferret?) trotted across the road and all the Prairie Dogs dove into their holes. And now back to Spearfish, but one last look at the Wyoming landscape. No interesting restaurants in Spearfish (at least none we could find), so dinner at Applebees. Wonder what we'll do tomorrow.