The miles tick away. A landscape in constant flux. Rolling hills and prairies roll by. Broken suddenly by a monolith. Jutting through the Wyoming sky.
Devils Tower National Monument
A place of unsurpassed natural mystery and adventure. A break from the sweated through cloth seats. A place to hike. To stretch - both mind and body.
From a few miles off, it looks spectacular. And unnatural. As if thrust out of the earth in molten terror. Or shorn from the hills about it by some gargantuan creature.
But look closer. I mean really close. And there again are creatures seeking shelter on its craggy precipices. No, I mean look really close.
Climbers daily surmount the ancient structure. Often with prayer flags tied into the local trees.
And others take a more traditional ascension.
At its base, burrows and tunnels wind around rock that has yet to be exposed. Hungry faces keep a watchful eye over home and leaf.
Climaxing at over 10,000 feet, the Beartooth Highway leaves behind even the solo monolith. The twisty and windy road opens on alpine meadows and oversees the Beartooth Wilderness. Hikers follow barely visible paths into the deep reaches of solitude and the sheer magnitude of the wild.
Leaving the summit, we chase the water as it rushes swiftly down from the thin air in the high altitudes. From the glaciers and through the eastern gate of Yellowstone National Park. Only to find itself tumbling careless through open air. Like a long-caged city dweller finally set free into immense beauty. The crisp mountain air and fresh wafts of pine are enough to send this traveler over the edge into the brisk pools of delight that feed meandering streams flowing through a slumbering caldera.
Down passed magnificent creatures clad in full velvet.
And out into the open once again.
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