Adventures in Roadtripping, Vol 4. - Mato Tipila

We woke up to a beautiful day, albeit cold. Today's trip was out to Devils Tower. Spielberg or sci-fi fans will recognize it as the "landing site" for the UFOs in "Close Encounters", the monolith that Richard Dreyfus carved out of mashed potatoes.

Outside, it was a brisk 15 degrees. We headed east to the monument, around an hour and a half away. About half the trip was on good but snowy roads. Traveling in the Melissa's Hummer, it was a fairly comfortable ride.

When you get about 10 miles out, you start seeing this thumb of rock sticking up from the landscape. It really is remarkable.

The Native American legends on the creation of the tower vary, but my favorite is a Sioux legend of two boys who had wandered far from home when Mato the bear, an immense beast saw them and decided they might be a tasty treat. The boys, terrified, prayed to their creator to save them. They rose up on a huge rock, and try as he might, Mato could not reach them, leaving his claw marks on all sides of the rock. Looking at the tower, you can see how the legend came alive.

When we arrived at the monument, we pulled up to the Ranger Station to get more information. Carolyn was looking forward to getting her fourth Junior Ranger badge, but the Visitor Center is closed during the winter months. Luckily, the ranger at the Ranger Station was incredibly helpful, and was able to give all the Junior Ranger materials before we headed up to the base of the tower. She also recommended a great spot to get a shot of the tower.

We drove up the short road to the parking area, spotting a few whitetail deer on the way. Melissa pulled the Hummer into a parking space, but decided to move it to a closer spot next to the telescopes. As she put the vehicle in reverse, I blurted out "STOP". Directly in front of us, perhaps 50 feet away, were two deer laying in the snow. I slowly got out of the vehicle with my camera and got about 20 feet closer. I got a few good shots before they started getting nervous, got up, and walked up the hill. The snow was too deep and the trail covered, so I got back in the Hummer and we moved to the other side of the parking area.

Carolyn looked around for the items to check off in her Junior Ranger book, and we admired the the majesty of this site sacred to so many Native Americans. She even looked through the telescope to see if she could see the "crystals" on the mountain (the crystals are feldspar crystals formed when the rock cooled).

But we couldn't stay long. It was less than 10 degrees out, and a light breeze was making it colder, and tougher to stay out. We loaded back into the Yukon, with Carolyn a bit disappointed that she had seen very few of the things in her Junior Ranger book.

We headed back down the road and turned off to the location the ranger mentioned for a picture. And the ranger was right - the location provided a dramatic, open shot of Devils Tower. I got a couple of shots off, and we started back down the road.

One of the items Carolyn needed was a butterfly, and though it's technically *not* a butterfly, we did see a moth, so she checked it off. Just a few yards down the road, we came across a deer about 30 feet up the hillside. He stood still, even holding hi ground as we slowly backed up to get a better shot. I'll post it as soon as I get the film developed, but I expect that will be one of the more dramatic shots I've taken of deer. Carolyn was able to say goodbye to him before we continued, and she added another checkmark.

A little farther on, we saw a lone squirrel, yet another checkmark, and that brought us back to the ranger station. We stopped for a minute, and I checked Carolyn's book, asked her a few questions about what she saw, then pulled out her official Junior Ranger certificate (already filled out by the ranger), and her new Devils Tower Ranger badge. She really gets a kick out of getting these badges!

We then started out to Hulett, WY, for lunch. It's a small town with a lot of lumber (it's where Melissa's folks go to get firewood), and we stopped at a small cafe to grab a bite.

The place was rustic, but homey feeling. We were seated in a new addition at a HUGE wooden table. I love stopping at little places off the beaten path as, more often than not, I'm surprised at the quality of the food. I am delighted to say that this place was no exception.

The girls ordered cheeseburgers, and I ordered chicken-fried chicken. When the food came out we realized we might be in for a treat. The servings were large, undoubtedly to cater to the hungry local crowd. Neither Melissa, Carolyn, nor Marvell were able to finish. The fries were delicious, and the onion rings Melissa got were tasty and sweet. My lunch was great, with juicy chicken fillets in a crunchy breading. The mashed potatoes and gravy matched the chicken.

And the best part? The whole meal for all four of us was about $30 bucks, including sodas/coffee. A steal considering the quality of the meal. If you ever head out to Devils Tower, take the short little trip to Hulett and get yourself a great meal.

On the trip back to Gillette, we got to see more deer, and a couple of huge flocks of wild turkeys (the gobbling kind, not the drinking kind). The view was beautiful with snowy hills broken by tall pines and the occasional farm house.

As we approached the interstate, I turned my GPS on, and found that right next to I-90 was a geocache. It was located within the fenced in area of a Rest Area, and I found it quickly. Carolyn got a necklace out of it. A quick check of the GPS showed another on the way home, so Melissa made her way there as well. This one required trudging through a bit of a snow drift to find, and it scored Carolyn a little green cloth bag.

By this point, we were five minutes from Melissa's folks house. We got settled in there, and once everyone was in, Melissa and I went for a drive around town to see more of Gillette. She showed me the airport, and a neighborhood with an interesting story. Once a growing subdivision, it now is almost abandoned due to high methane gas levels. Apparently, nearby coal mining activity may have caused some underground shifting that allowed the gas to seep at dangerous levels. The Rawhide neighborhood was evacuated in 1987 and there still seem to be a few residents, but is is a little eerie.

We headed across the road to a new elementary school and a development with a large open area in the middle of it. And grazing there, a small herd of deer.

We headed back to her folks house, and her dad wanted to take us out to dinner. We headed to the Golden Corral, a fairly good buffet. Carolyn was plenty happy - they had pizza there. That kid can pack pizza away. If she could, she'd have it 7 days a week, three meals a day.

After dinner and a quick stop at Melissa's folks house, we headed back to the hotel. We had heard weather reports warning of a real cold blast coming in, so I fired up the laptop and Google Earth to see if I could get some info. I was able to find National Weather Service information that showed the storm in Western Montana but heading our direction. We settled in for the night, with the thought that we might need to leave a day early.