Day 8 - Deadwood to Devil's Tower to West Yellowstone, MT

Looking at a map it might not look like I went all that far today but all told, I put about 700 miles on Mitsy. It didn't even feel like it though, because I was touring in some of the most rugged and awesome terrain that this country has to offer. It felt more like I was touring than just going from point A to B.

To start off with, I had to get my dad's birthday present. Some of you may know already that Sturgis, SD (about fifteen miles from Deadwood) holds the largest annual Harley Davidson Rally in the world. This sleepy little town, which is maybe the size of Waynesboro at most, gets somewhere around half a million bikers for one weekend in August. Honestly, I don't know how that works, but apparently it does. ::shrugs:: Anyhow, since my dad loves his Fat Boy, I had to get him a T-shirt (happy birthday dad). I did feel slightly out of place, I'm not exactly the Harley demographic, so I got a few stares. But I can buy a t-shirt as well as any biker dammit!

Anyway, after Sturgis, I headed to the first national monument in the country. I'm not sure why it's a 'monument' and not a park though, I always thought a monument was commemorating something...not so says Wyoming. Devil's Tower has to be one of the most bizarre and awesome sights I've ever seen. In the outskirts of the Black Hills, this humongous column of stone comes out of nowhere to a height of more than 1000 feet over the valley floor. You can actually see it for about twenty miles but as you get closer you can see how the tower looks like its been 'scratched.' It's funny, there isn't really any hiking or trails for the most part, but you just kinda stand there slackjawed for a few minutes. Wyoming does a very good job of making you feel very very small.

From Devil's Tower, I headed to West Yellowstone. If you look at a map of Montana, you'll see that its right on the border of Wyoming (which is where the actual park is) and Idaho, in this little overhang from the rest of the state. As I was driving through Billings and later Bozeman, I could see the Rocky Mountains starting. They look completely different from those in NC (so far anyway). A little less 'inviting' but a lot more 'awe inspiring.' I haven't really seen what they have to offer yet though, it got dark as I was actually entering into the Rockies proper. Finally I got to West Yellowstone at about 9 pm. This place is kinda eerie right now, you can tell that during summer it's a huge tourist town. Now though, it's pretty much empty. I was tired anyway so the lack of 'nightlife' was fine by me, but I wouldn't have had much of a choice.

So tomorrow, I'm waking up pretty early (7:30) to go on a snowcoach tour of the park. Most of the roads through the park are closed to car traffic because of the snow, but the park itself is open...to snow vehicles. So they will be showing me (and other people) around Yellowstone in these crazy vans that have tank treads instead of tires. It should be a pretty cool experience no matter what I see otherwise. Anyway, I need to go ahead to sleep since I'll lose the hundred bucks if I oversleep!