Sunday, July 06, 2008
Day 5: Heading to the Mountains.
We left our little campsite to head towards Wyoming.
The plan was to spend a few days hiking the Big Horn Mountains after a brief stop at a B&B in Story, WY
On the way, we decided to stop off and see Devil's Tower, which is about 100 miles from the Black Hills. It's actually smaller than "little" Devil's Tower (from day 1) in the Black Hills at 5200 ft above sea level. But it is just so strange to see it emerge from the rolling plains on its own. People actually climb it and that day we were treated to 4 people inching up the side.
It has as structure of dolomite columns that are 4-7 sided, geometrically precise, and the base of the tower is littered with columns that have broken off of it and fallen. The National Park Service assures us that nothing has fallen off in a very long time.
Again, this is a place seen as sacred to Native Americans. Legend has it that it was formed when little girls were pursued by a bear and prayed for rescue. The land responded and pushed up the land under the little girls to save them, and the bears claws scratched the column in trying to reach them. They call it Bear Lodge.
(prayer cloths in the trees)
But on the way, we had time to view native Wyoming too.
We chose a couple of back roads to make it there and were treated to sights of native Wyoming. We discovered that Wyoming is 1) home to mile long trains of coal heading east 2) flat expanses of sagebrush and cattle and 3) oil fields - and oil pumps come in small and large sizes!
Another thing that takes some getting used to is how gas is sold. You can buy the cheapest grade for about what we'd pay at home, $3.99. But that has ethanol in it, and you don't want to put ethanol in your car do you? Then "regular" unleaded is marked at a slightly higher price, but has no ethanol. Then "premium" unleaded is of course the stuff we'd pay for too, but without ethanol. I put the "regular" non-ethanol in before I realized it. I don't really care, but here they pump oil, and they probably don't like those corn-based fuels making their way into their fuel supply.
But then we saw our destination...
MOUNTAINS! ¶ 5:40 PM
We left our little campsite to head towards Wyoming.The plan was to spend a few days hiking the Big Horn Mountains after a brief stop at a B&B in Story, WY
On the way, we decided to stop off and see Devil's Tower, which is about 100 miles from the Black Hills. It's actually smaller than "little" Devil's Tower (from day 1) in the Black Hills at 5200 ft above sea level. But it is just so strange to see it emerge from the rolling plains on its own. People actually climb it and that day we were treated to 4 people inching up the side.
It has as structure of dolomite columns that are 4-7 sided, geometrically precise, and the base of the tower is littered with columns that have broken off of it and fallen. The National Park Service assures us that nothing has fallen off in a very long time.
Again, this is a place seen as sacred to Native Americans. Legend has it that it was formed when little girls were pursued by a bear and prayed for rescue. The land responded and pushed up the land under the little girls to save them, and the bears claws scratched the column in trying to reach them. They call it Bear Lodge.
(prayer cloths in the trees)
But on the way, we had time to view native Wyoming too.
We chose a couple of back roads to make it there and were treated to sights of native Wyoming. We discovered that Wyoming is 1) home to mile long trains of coal heading east 2) flat expanses of sagebrush and cattle and 3) oil fields - and oil pumps come in small and large sizes!
Another thing that takes some getting used to is how gas is sold. You can buy the cheapest grade for about what we'd pay at home, $3.99. But that has ethanol in it, and you don't want to put ethanol in your car do you? Then "regular" unleaded is marked at a slightly higher price, but has no ethanol. Then "premium" unleaded is of course the stuff we'd pay for too, but without ethanol. I put the "regular" non-ethanol in before I realized it. I don't really care, but here they pump oil, and they probably don't like those corn-based fuels making their way into their fuel supply.
But then we saw our destination...
MOUNTAINS! ¶ 5:40 PM
