From the Devil's Tower to the Bighorn Mountains

Start: Devils Tower, Wyoming
End: GreyBull, Wyoming
Distance: 303 miles (485 KM)
Gas: Moorcroft, South Dakota 3.655 GAL @ $3.399 TOTAL $12.42; Buffalo, South Dakota, 2.620 gal @ 3.689 Total $9.67

Campsite: KOA Campground, GreyBull, Wyoming
Cost $38.42 per site; a very well kept KOA campground located just west of the Big Horn Mountain range. Very clean and modern facilities; nice hot showers, laundry, hydro & water and restaurant with otdoor cafe. The lot was large with nice grass and very quiet.

We got up early, showered, had breakfast and then headed for the Devils Tower. There is a $5.00 fee for motorcycles to enter the park. We were awed by the size of the lava dome when we were up close. There is a small trail to follow around the tower. As we walked and took photos, we read bits of info placed along the path. It appears that the earth around the lava dome eroded away for a depth of almost 1.5 miles, leaving just the lava dome exposed. There is also a rim of very red rock surrounding the dome. The dome is about 850 feet high.

As we circled the dome, we saw perigrene falcons. Further around the dome, we saw a couple of guys climbing the tower. It was a slow but methodical climb and we watched them for quite some time. Moving a bit further, we saw an old wooden ladder that was used about 100 years ago by the first person to climb the dome.
Right next to this ladder, we saw a girl, climbing by herself, even higher than the 2 guys we were watching. They just looked like little specs up there. A ranger said that about 5000 people climb the tower each year. We could have watched them for hours, but we had to be out of the park by 11:00, so we backtracked the path and started to leave the park. There were hourdes of people now coming into the park, so it was a good time to leave.

Heading back, we enjoyed the route back to the interstate and then we west again.
As we headed west, the terrain became semi-arrid with expansive fields of grass and sage grass. There were few trees and the horizon was nothing but brown grasslands with dashes of green from the sage bushes.The area is so large, the speed limit in the area is 80 mph. That works out to 129 km/hr. As we are used to 0 mph, it took a while to get our speed up to the 80mph and go with the flow of traffic.
We filled our tanks in Moocroft, a very tiny turnoff, as we did not want to get stuck in the middle of no-man;s land.
We rode thru Keystome and saw what looked like a huge tar sands pit.
We rode thru Gillette, Wyoming, which is a very large town in Wyoming.
From there, we crossed the huge barren grasslands and noticed how arid the area was.
As we neared Buffalo, Wyoming, we could see the outline of the mountains. I checked the temperature on my bike and we were hitting the 90's. That explained why the mountains were grayed out from a haze.
We gassed up, updated the blog from yesterday,did a bit of grocery shopping, and then headed north on the intersate 90 so we could take a scenic route 14 thru the mountains towards  Yellowstone.
We went north to Sheridan and then took Hwy 14 West towards Greybull, which is on the other side of the Bighorn Mountains.
We weaved thru roads coming up to the haze covered mountains and were a bit disappointed because the scenery was magnificent behind the haze. We could'nt take any decent photos because of that. The temperature was hot, over 90 degrees at the base.
Once we started climbing the Bighorn Mountains from the east, we climbed and climbed on switchbacks and it seemed you were right against the edge. It's hard to admire the scenery and keep your eye on the road at the same time.

We stopped a few times for photos, but again, disappointment because of the haze.
Once at the top, we rode for miles along rolling treed hills with lush grass.

After about 1/2 hour, we started down the otherside and the veiws we even more spectacular.  Instead of a forested mountain, the west side is massive mountains of granite, dating back about 500 million years. They were massive and when we started down, we could not stop to take photos as the road was sweeping back and forth and there were no turnoffs to stop for photos. Such incredible beauty that we could not capture on photos. The size of the cliffs and the canyon walls are indescribable.
We were able to stop at one scenic resting point to photo Bald Mountain which has an elevation of over 10,000 ft (almost 2 miles above sea level). There is a small river running thru the bottom of the gorge which had some nice cascading waterfalls.
As we proceded thru the mountain pass, the rock formations changed colours from browns to whites to bright red. The rock cuts were dynamic and the curves sweeping back and forth as we could see the route we would be soon travelling on, way below us.
It was getting a bit late and it looked like rain, so we had to hurry out of the mountains. It was a bit sad to leave such a gorgeous location.

Once out of the mountains, the terrain became rolling and there were bluffs of very bright red and crimsom shooting out of the grasslands.
We rode about 45 minutes and stopped at the KOA Campground int Greybull. It is the cleanest campground ever recorded. You could eat off The washroom floors, the showers were spotless and the outside eating area is very charming. When we arrived, Maria and Cor, the owners, greeted us with a bottle of cold water. It was such a nice touch.

We bbq'd a nice dinner of cube steak, mixed vegetables and eggs, topped with a glass of wine.
When I started the blog, the bugs came out and were so bad, we had to call it a night.
We are now on our way to Yellowstone National Park. In talking with others, the park is rustic so there is no electricity, wifi, showers, flush toilets, etc. It will be a refreshing day without technology and many conveniences we take for granted!