Ever since I saw the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", I knew that someday I would get to visit Devils Tower National Monument in northeastern Wyoming. Well, it has taken me 36 years (the movie premiered in 1977) but I finally got there last month. It is located in the middle of nowhere about 60 miles northeast of Gillette, WY and about 110 miles northwest of Rapid City, SD.
We got a late start from Gillette and the winds were quite strong. Driving on the highway was challenging, requiring two hands firmly on the wheel. When we got off the interstate, we were shielded a bit by the formations on either side of the road. Devils Tower is quite a large formation that sticks out of the landscape as it is surrounded by plains. Despite that, I couldn't get a glimpse of it until we were almost there.
This image was the first one I shot of the day and is a great view of the structure. The wind was blowing so hard that I had to hold onto my tripod to keep it from blowing over. The clouds were a bonus and were moving quite rapidly the whole morning. And as the title of the post suggest, we did not see any aliens.