American Diary part 10 Wyoming

WYOMING May 30th Left South Dakota and entered WYOMING - the symbol for this state is a rodeo horse and cowboy, which about sums it up. A rugged landscape of ranches, hills, grazing land and... DEVIL's TOWER! A volcanic column of granite forced up as magma inside a volcano which has long since eroded away to leave this wierd shape visible from miles away. Famous from the film 'Close Encounters of the third Kind' (see it NOW if you haven't already). It is a truly spectacular place. Surrounded by trees at the base, there is a walk of around 2 miles giving different perspectives and changing light. You can see climbers making the ascent, and birds circling at the top - apparently there are snakes nesting on top too. Another Priarie Dog town covers a large meadow at the base near where we camped, and I had the BEST view of the tower from my tent. It was 'awesome'. I didn't see any UFO's though, Shame. To get into the cowboy mood, Dan turned the van into a cinema and we watched 'Unforgiven' on his laptop. Clilnt Eastwood at his best. Great. May 31st Leaving Devil's Tower we stopped for lunch at DEADWOOD. This town was at the heart of the Black Hills gold Rush in the 19th century and home to people such as Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hikock who was shot here during a poker game in Saloon #10 - we saw a very cheesy performance of this by some third rate actors whilst we ate fries and rank coke in the very same poker saloon. There is not much here, gambling is about it. There is a good museum though, and fascinating artefacts from the gold rush, the fires which have hit the valley and destroyed the town more than once, and stories of the outlaws who lived there. Moving on, we drove high up and over the BIGHORN mountains. Spectacular, and covered in snow, we drove through a mild blizzard and I realised I had the wrond clothes for this weather! Arriving at our muddy and wet campsite mid afternoon, my hiking shoes began to leak and my socks were soaking wet. I was going to need new boots. We drove the short distance into CODY - a larger town established my Buffalo Bill Cody, famous for his wild west shows (See the movie Hidalgo. More modern that you would like, it has a wide street and shops selling cowboy clothing and not much else. At the top end of the street are 5 museums, more disney than wild west so I gave it a miss, but i DID find an outdoors shop and picked up some leather hiking boots for $40! Bargain! We stopped in Cody for dinner (too wet to cook at camp) and had pizza for $5 each. Back at the tents, I did some much needed laundry and chatted to some fellow campers - both American with intriguing life stories! It really was muddy, cold and miserable. Not a highlight. June 1st Wet tents got packed away and we left the site - I ceremonially dumped my old and soggy Ariat boots in the trash - useless, despite waterproofing them before I left home. Shame on you Ariat! In the distance we could see the start of Yellowstone Park and it was here we would spend the next 3 days.