Still Gravity

Our spot in Eagle Pass, Wyoming.  After visiting the city of Cody and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, we set camp in BLM land at Eagle Pass. View of the mountains towards the west.  Our dry camping spot had a great view of the Bighorn Basin and the Absaroka Range, but stormy weather threw us out of the place - winds around 30 miles per hour.  The weather was awful.  Later came the rain.  We had to drive back at night to the city Powell and some hail hit us on the lonely road. The wind warnings from the National Weather Service for our previous spot at Eagle Pass forecasted guts up to 60 miles per hour. Too much for the pop up camper.  (Posted from the phone.) Check this page  to license our photos.

The insect on the wheel.  The little beast took over one of my KO2 tires.  This insect looks like the timberman beetle of Europe but is the longhorn beetle of North America. The antennae are longer than the body of the animal. Strange creature with big sensors.  (Posted from the phone.) Check this page  to license our photos.

Entrance to the museum. This town of Wyoming is named after "Buffalo Bill" Cody - probably the most famous celebrity in the world at his time. It's the east gate to Yellowstone at almost 5,000 feet elevation.  We spent hours visiting the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Five museums in one.  The childhood home of Buffalo Bill.  Themes are firearms, western art, Buffalo Bill, Indians of the plains, and  natural history.  Personal items.  The guns of the old West.  American Indians clothes.  Very interesting place.  (Posted from the phone.) Check this page  to license our photos.

Medicine Wheel.  A sacred place for many tribes of American Indians high on the mountains of Bighorn National Forest.  The door to the sacred wheel.  The Medicine Wheel is at an elevation of 9,644 feet.  The stones of the wheel.  Some information on the site.  A dirt road took us to the trailhead and then we walked roughly three miles roundtrip.  The road to the wheel.  What an impressive place surrounded by impressive views.  Big rocks on a cliff near Medicine Wheel.  The wind, the cliffs, the old traditions.  C hiking by the cliffs.  My shadow on the hike. Wildlife in the Bighorn Mountains.  (Posted from the phone.) Check this page  to license our photos.

Our site in Sibley Lake.  We stayed at Sibley Lake campground two days before it closed for the winter.  Small camp with some electric sites. We chose one without electricity - not much electric stuff running in our camper in these cold days.  We came through highway 14 via Dayton. One of the overlooks coming from the east.  Stop at the entrance.  What a scenic road full of steep slopes and switchbacks.   View towards the east.  Big rocks formations.  The lake by the campground is beautiful. We saw some people fishing there. Sibley Lake.  We walked a short section of the Sibley Lake Ski Trails from the trailhead at the shores of the lake. The wide ski trail.  C on the bridge of the creek.  Sunset in the trail.  What about some hot chocolate for the cold night of this high place? Ready for a hot chocolate.  Pretty cold the following morning.  (Posted from the phone.) Check this page  to license our photos.

C on the Red Beds Trail.  We did both and also walked the trail that goes through the prairie dogs field by the campground. Plenty of prairie dogs here.  The animals sounded the alarm of our approach at every moment with their sharp screams synchronized with tail movements. One of the guardians.  This short trail borders the Belle Fourche River.  The sculptor of the area.  The total distance walked combining trails was over six miles. Dramatic view of the tower.  The Devil's Tower Trail is very accessible. All paved and only 1.6 miles long.  We saw some climbers rappelling down on the gigantic rock.   The window.  You need a permit to climb the Devil's Tower.  The Red Beds Trail is very nice and less crowded. The Red Beds Trail.  It travels through the red formations. Photogenic iron-reach terrain.  We hiked some secondary trails hunting for views.  The river seen from the trail.  There were many ponderosa pines down by this trail.  Fallen trees.  The sap of the pine.  We carri

The natural set used for the movie  Close Encounters of the Third Kind of Steve Spielberg.  On the way to the Devil's Tower, we passed by the city of Deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  We liked what we saw but didn't stop. A place to tour if we travel again through the Interstate 90.  Crossing through Deadwood.  Then came another stop at the Walmart of Spearfish for supplies and at the Wyoming Visitor Center for travel info.  The visitor center in the I-90.  The Belle Fourche River Campground in Devil's Tower National Monument - the name means "beautiful fork" in French - is at a horseshoe twist of the small waterway. This means that three sides of the camp are surrounded by the river.  Our site facing the tower.  We got a site for three nights. What a view of the amazing wonder created by magma - even if the specifics are still controversial.  There was no Devil in this massive rock for the American Indians. For them, it was sort of a home for the bea

The famous monument of the Black Hills.  We went in the morning to Mount Rushmore National Monument - the best time to see the sculptures under the best light.  There, we met the famous presidential faces. The four pretty serious, like correspond to important people. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.  The four presidents.  And on the side, some Indian stuff.  The legal owners of the Black Hills.  The sculptor of the colossal artwork was John Gutzon Borglum, the son of Danish immigrants. He was also the author of the Confederate memorial on Stone Mountain, Georgia.  The Rushmore name comes from New York Attorney Charles Rushmore. He came to the Black Hills to inspect mining claims and the mountain was named after him - nothing here related to presidents.  Around three million people visit this monument each year. We saw mostly elders at the place. Is this because young Americans don't care about history and heritage?  Probably. But another