Wyoming Revisited (Sheridan)

I left Rapid City and headed out to Sheridan in Wyoming. The aim of this leg was to head all the way back to Yellowstone and meet up with Fay (who I met in Laramie) in Jackson. On the long and boring ride to Sheridan was the "Devil's Tower", which some of you may know from the movie "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind".

I took a 20 minute detour off the interstate towards the tower. As I got closer it was pretty amazing to see it in the background, it almost looked like it was movie set - sort of painted on. The thing juts out weirdly from the landscape making it look really strange.

Devils's Tower, my bike and I.

As it appears from the highway.

Once I reached the park where it was located I had to pay to get in (as I was starting to get used to, lucky there is always cash in my wallet). Then there was a super slow ride all the way to the base of it. I quickly got off my bike then walked around the trail at the base. I walked pretty fast as I knew that I could run out of daylight by the time I hit Sheridan (I want to ride as little as possible at night over here) and the sun was pretty intense at the time. I met a very nice couple along the way who live in both France and San Francisco, 6 months at a time. They had both been to Australia, one had even been to Canberra!

Que the music from Close Encounters.

For some reason I look really pleased with myself.

If you look closely you can see one of the climbers.

Interesting story: Apparently some guy parachuted onto the top of the tower a while back, but when they dropped his climbing equipment they missed completely. So for a few weeks they air dropped food as he languished about on the summit. By the time they could get the climbing gear to him he had gained a few kilos!

So off I set to Sheridan, not much to see except some interesting isolated cloud formations. This time no tornadoes.

Clouds!

You can see the isolated showers in this one.