Devil's Tower National Monument

I'm not really sure why Devil's Tower looks the way it does, but supposedly it used to be an active volcano, and erosion has somehow removed the parts of the mountain that used to be there, leaving the strange looking columns that you see.

Nick and Joe climbing over the ruins of some of the columns that used to hang on the mountain. If you look carefully, you can see that parts of them have fallen down.

Nick was pretty pleased to see Devil's Tower. I woke up one day after moving back to Richmond, and I found him outside building a to-scale replica of the mountain in the backyard. I think he likes it.

Were I to become a photographer, I'd probably do some sort of photo-essay on my little brother. He's just so damn photogenic.

Of course, no one takes any pictures of me...

The sunlight was very good for some of these shots.

The view from the base of the mountain, looking upon Wyoming and her vast emptiness.

Badlands National Park

The Badlands were bad-ass. No joke.

Nick and Alex appear happy here, but they're really both contemplating pushing the other over the edge.

Mmmm....Badlands.

Nick and Joe are actually farther away than they look in this shot. There's a crevice that separates them, dropping at least 50 feet, though you can't really see it.

A-Roth, looking like he's scaling the highest peaks that Badlands National Park has to offer. In Birkenstocks, no less.

"Goodbye cruel world!"

If you blow this up and look closely, you can see Alex in his "Short-Run" t-shirt in the foreground, near the green shrubs. The views were astonshing.

Nick and Joe have conquered the mountain. They seem happy about it.

"Bitch! Where's my money?"

"Old friends. Old friends. Sat on their parkbench like bookends..."

This is about when Alex was thinking he should run back to the car and leave Nick and Joe for dead. Unfortunately, they were only in South Dakota, and there was way too much driving left to do.

Cast of Characters

Nick: Dashing. Young. Unpredictable. And a total goofball.

Josephina: Voted creepiest windshield washer in 15 states.

A-Roth: Don't let that grin fool you; he likes little boys.