Wyoming is the least populated of all 50 states. They always put it in very small scale in atlases too, to make it look smaller, but it is HUGE.  And packed with sights.  My first stop was to visit the famous Devil's Tower National Monument, the very first of all designated nat'l monuments.  This was featured in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and is just basically this giant, grooved monolith in the middle of nowhere.  I hiked around it, and as dusk set in on the long, long summer day, it was an absolutely awesome site.

Devils Tower (Mile 5580)

I then jumped back on US14 -- an absolutely remote, hauntingly beautiful stretch of road -- back to I-90 and the Motel 6 in the town of Gillette, Wyoming (Mile 5627).  It was late and I was tired, and I wasn't paying attention and almost missed the exit that said "NEXT EXIT 87 MILES" -- Holy Cow!  Glad I swerved over and made it. It also reminded me to shave the next morning.

The next day marked my trek across the heart of Wyoming, and it was an all-day affair.  Up very early, I did the 87-mile stretch of nada, then left the interstate to take the US highways that would lead me to Jackson Hole on the west side of the state.  The day was marked by an incredible diversity of landscapes -- from the kind of desert scrub scenes Wiley E. Coyote chases the Road Runner across, to majestic snow-capped peaks.

Entering the Bighorn Mountains (Mile 5745)

Powder River Pass in the Bighorns, the highest point I would reach in the car on the trip (Mile 5760)

What a sight for sore eyes -- in the middle of nowhere in Ten Sleep Wyoming, 
this great coffee shop that served up a super iced americano!!! (Mile 5792)

Left: The Little Chicago Bar in the middle of Wyoming (Mile 5821) and Thermopolis, the world's largest hot springs (Mile 5854)

Finally, I crossed the Continental Divide for the first time on the trip -- right at the 5,999 mile mark -- and got my first glimpse of the Grand Tetons, the dramatic mountain range of Western Wyoming that seems to rise straight up out of the floor of the Jackson Hole valley.  No foothills, just flatness then mountains.  My first glimpse below came during the Jackson forest fire, thus the smoke and haze.

First look at the Grand Tetons (Mile 6011)

Continue on to Jackson & Yellowstone...