(Still behind on my blog of course so I'll put a link to the pics at the end of this post.)
Leaving Spearfish we headed north to Belle Fourche and then headed west toward Wyoming. We crossed a beautiful mountain pass this morning. There were gates, similar to railroad crossing gates, on both sides of the mountain. These were to stop motorist when the road was closed due to snow. Being from south Arkansas we had never seen these before.
Coming down the west side of the mountain we caught our first glimpse of Devil's Tower. We were still 20 miles away. We finally got close enough to stop and take some pictures. No close encounters of the third kind either. I don't know why they call it the Devil's Tower, I think it should have been called God's Tower the way it reaches for the heavens like the Tower of Babel... well, we know what happened there so maybe that's the why....
Onward we rolled, beautiful country surrounding us, making us say wow, and, I'm not one to say OMG, but that's what I thought. Snow. The mountains had snow on top of them...and I had planned our trip over the top. Soon after Sheridan, WY we turned toward the Big Horn National forest and Medicine mountain on highways 14 and 14A.
Up we went, higher over the valley floor below. Seeing further and further with every switchback until the horizon was lost. I think I might have seen Arkansas.
Snow was in patches and the temperature cooled quite a bit. I finally found a suitable spot to pull over so Kat could fling a snowball at me. Little did I know we would soon see a white winter wonderland.
As we increased in elevation we also saw an increase in snow until the ground was covered and the drifts along the highway were several feet deep. Did we bring enough clothes...?? The road to the Medicine Wheel was still closed to traffic, I would have like to have seen that. Medicine Wheel
On the western side of the mountain the temperatures warmed and the green forest gave way to arid grasslands. The wind pushed us on south by southwest toward Cody, WY. I had always figured the town of Cody to be a big feedlot...boy, was I wrong. It's a neat tourist mecca for vacationers traveling to Yellowstone and surrounding areas.
I didn't see a single cowboy hat....
Here's the link for today's pictures.Day 6 - Spearfish to Cody
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