Devils Tower – Close Encounters

From the west side of Wyoming to the east…. Driving up and down and around the hills and mountains for most of the morning, I finally made it to Devils Tower.  I checked into the KOA, which is literally at the gate to this National Monument and headed up the hill to the visitors center.  The tower really is pretty cool close up.  I stopped to listen to the Ranger talking about some of the features of the tower and pointing out a group of climbers who had set out to climb to the top earlier that day.  It was a beautiful afternoon, so I decided to take the 1.3 mile trail that goes around the base.  It is very cool how the tower seems to change as you go around it.  On the way back to the KOA I stopped at Prairie  Dog Town on the road out of the park, and spent about 30 minutes just watching them and taking pictures.  There were deer all over the place and I ended up with a few good pictures of them as well.  Every night the KOA plays the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and folks bring their lawn chairs and sit around watching.  I wandered over to check it out and ended up pulling up a chair and sat and watched the whole movie.  As crazy as it sounds, it was very cool sitting there watching the movie with Devils Tower right behind the screen, with 20 some odd perfect strangers.  Very good day ! !