REAXblog

My alarm rang at 4:30 am for some ungodly reason. I’d wanted to take some video of Devils Tower at sunrise, but forget that, I was tired and had slept poorly. I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep.

I woke up again at about 5:30, and it was light out. I peeked outside my tent, and the sun was not up, so I decided to rush my clothes on, grab my video and camera, and then jumped in Van Go and raced to the visitors center at the base of the tower. I threw on my hiking boots, and proceeded to hike around the Tower Loop trail that circled Devils Tower as close as possible.

The only problem was the visitors center (and parking lot) were located on the west side of the tower, and sunrise as you know begins in the east. It was about one mile around to the other side, so I hoofed it, walking briskly around to the eastern end of the trail.

I found a good spot, a scenic view from the east, and set up my camera, and put it into time-lapse mode and let it run. I finished less than a minute before the sun peeked over the horizon. As the video recorded, I took some photographs and mostly sat there. It was beautiful and quiet. None of the campers were awake, no bikers were open-throttling their Harley’s, just the chirps of birds, the crunching of branches under the feet of white-tailed deer, the sounds of nature. I sat on the bench for most of half an hour, contemplating the universe as I had the previous night.

The Tower turned a bright orange as sunlight crested over the hills yonder, and then a dull grey as the sun hid behind a whispy puff of cloud. I took down my kit, and hiked another 2/3rds a mile further around the tower, snapping more pictures. I encountered a family of deer, and tried to maneuver for a picture, but I was upwind of everything in this direction so I don’t think it ever could have happened.

I arrived back to the visitors center, hopped in Van Go, and rolled back down to the campsite and packed up. I had an itinerary for the day: Breakfast, in Sundance, WY or Rapid City, SD; to drive through the Badlands, and then arrive in Sioux Falls, SD (on the Minnesota border) where I had a couchsurf lined up. More on that later.

Pictures from today are here.