Back to Montana and Wyoming

After spending the night at a harvest host in High River, Alberta, Canada Wednesday, we made our way back into the US Thursday. We crossed at Coutts, Canada into Montana where we stayed at another harvest host in Three Forks, Montana. The crossing was a breeze, with the normal questions, how long were you in Canada, anything to declare, etc., and of course it’s the usual stern border agent until he said, “are you really from New York” and we answered "yes" and he cracked a smile and said “you’re a long way from home”, at which Mark replied "yes, it's great to be retired". He laughed, handed us our Nexus cards back and said, "drive safely".

There was still lots of smoke and rain on Thursday so unfortunately the views weren’t as magnificent as they could have been.  We were remarking how Montana really offers a little bit of everything, from mountains to prairies, lakes and rivers. If you’ve ever seen the movie, "The Hunt for Red October", maybe the conversation between two Soviet naval officers, heading to America in a nuclear submarine and hoping to defect comes to mind.

               Borodin: Do you think they will let me live in Montana?

               Ramius: I would think they’ll let you live wherever you want.

               Borodin: Good. Then I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck…maybe even a “recreational vehicle.” And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?

               Ramius: I suppose.

               Borodin: No papers?

               Ramius: No papers, state to state.

The dialogue goes back and forth, but near the end of the film Borodin is fatally wounded. As he dies, he manages to utter a few last well-known words:

               Borodin: I would like to have seen Montana.

With brilliant sunshine Friday we enjoyed the different scenery and saw a lot of antelope in Wyoming. It was a long travel day of 463 miles to Devil’s Tower, Wyoming where we stayed at Devil’s Tower KOA right outside the National Monument. I had hoped to get some sunset pictures since we are further east, and this area offers a great location for viewing the Milky Way. Unfortunately, with the heat in the afternoon the clouds rolled in and there were pop up thunderstorms...so no stars to gaze at. 

Some interesting facts about Devils Tower:

            First if you recognize it from a movie, you are correct. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was filmed here.

            It is 867' tall from the visitor center to the summit.

            It is the United States' first national monument, dedicated September 24, 1906, by Theodore Roosevelt.

            The tower is spiritually significant to many indigenous people. The Native Americans hang colorful cloths on the trees to symbolize prayer cloths as part of religious ceremonies. Visitors are asked not to take pictures or touch them but to observe these items with reverence.

            The Tower is composed of phonolite porphyry, a rare igneous rock.

            The top is about the size of a football field and is covered in plants.

Not quite home to Buffalo, NY...although we are on

the 90...it's just Buffalo, Wyoming, 1,650 miles from 

Buffalo, NY.

There are more antelope in Wyoming than any other state.

Devils Tower as the sun rises behind it.

There was a lot of tree destruction, we

found out they had a tornado in August 2024.

We watched these 2 climbers go up the side

of the tower.

Our site at the KOA. We had a perfect view of the Tower.

When we were at Bryce Canyon I kept looking

for the prairie dogs. We were told the moms were

in the dens nursing the babies. 

There is a prairie dog town right after you enter

the park. There were hundreds running around.