I’ve made a discovery!  It is quite possible to find excellent coffee in the US, you just have to search for “espresso bars” instead of cafes!  Using this discovery I quickly found Alternative Fuel Coffee House in Rapid City, South Dakota, and spent a peaceful morning drinking great lattes and getting caught up on my writing.  Ahhh….

When my phone and computer batteries gave out, it was time to move on, and I drove westward again into Wyoming.  My goal was another site that was held to be sacred by the Native Americans of the area, and even from a distance I could see why.  It was the most prominent thing in the landscape for miles around.

This sign explained that the tower is believed to be either the solidified lava from the central cone of a volcano, or else where lava flowed into a crack in the surface and then solidified.  Although the column may have been formed from molten lava as much as fifty million years ago, the surrounding rock was eroded away only about two million years ago, leaving the impressive tower.

There’s a ring trail that circles the base of Devil’s Tower, and it’s just really breathtaking up close.  Permits can be obtained to go closer to the base and up the scree slope, but given the sacred nature of the site, I imagine that they’re not often granted.  Imagine, this is all naturally formed!

It’s hard to appreciate the scale of the tower in pictures, and actually, it’s even a bit difficult to really grasp it’s size when you’re standing right at the base of it.  I took the picture below with the FJ in it to give some perspective — remember that the tower is still about half a mile further away.  Wow.  Nature is kind of awesome.