OK... We made the long drive day, yesterday,,, so we could make a short "Side Trip", today, to a place that I've wanted to visit since 1977 !
1977??? How can I be so sure of the year date? And why, 1977???
1977 is when the movie "Close Encounter of the 3rd Kind" was released. In the film, a natural structure featured as the alien meeting location was...
DEVIL'S TOWER in Wyoming.
Devils Tower is a formation of Igneous Rock that was produced by a volcanic vent many million years ago. As the diagram indicates, the lava never reached the surface, and solidified underground. The earth above the rock formation was over a mile think before erosion began it's work of uncovering the massive tower structure.
As you can clearly see, the tower is made up of thousands of "Hexagon" columns, that run the full length of the structure. This crystallization effect is only found in a few places on the globe. The other location in the USA, is "Devil's Post Pile" in the Mammoth area of California.
These columns are always breaking off and falling in a pile of rubble at the base of the formation. The last column to break off, did so about 10,000 years ago. In addition, the erosion of the base and subterranean features are continuing today. Currently the height of the tower is about 878 feet (at it's highest point) on the North face. The top of the tower is somewhat "domed" and is about the size of a football field.
I had no choice... I had to visit the monument. One of the really interesting things about this part of Wyoming is the cloud formations. They really do look like familiar objects.
Once we had our visit at the Tower, it was time to get back on the road. We had 120 miles to go yet before reaching the "Horse Thief RV Park", where we were to hook up with all the "Alaska" group. That 120 miles turned out to be another long drive. Most of it was in mountains... slow going, and steep terrain.
We pulled in about 5ish in the afternoon, and YES... we were the last to arrive. There were hugs all round, and it was nice seeing everyone after a year apart.
We all went out to dinner at "Desperado's" (in Hill City), and had a fine "Cowboy" type meal. Back at camp, we made plans to meet the next morning about 10:00 to set up our agenda for the week.
More tomorrow.
