We drove from West Yellowstone, Montana to Devils Tower, Wyoming on Friday. We camped a few miles away at the Devils Tower View Campground. The view from camp was a bit spooky.

The next day we went to the Tower and hiked around it. It's a really cool piece of geology.

We drug the camper to Yellowstone, stopping on the way at a small campground west of Lander on the way. We camped outside the park on the Montanna side, driving into the park to explore during the day. It's definitely worth the trip, though we found it a little crowded this time of year.

The landscape and wildlife are beautiful, and the unusual geology interesting. The highlight was a bison that crossed the road in front of us, then turned and walked past us in the opposing lane, passing the truck window close enough for me to touch.

I competed in the Rocky Mountain Highland Games yesterday. I threw reasonably well, but don't have the scores. Friends flew in from Kentucky and had been up since 01:30 Colorado time, so we headed home as soon as the last event was over without waiting for the final tabulation.

In Entering Space Robert Zubrin describes how humanity could graduate from being a planet bound species to an interplanetary, and eventually interstellar one. He categorizes civilizations by the extent of their mastery of local resources. Type I civilizations exploit the resources of their native planet. Type II civilizations achieve control of the resources of their home star system. Type III civilizations expand to multiple star systems.

As founder of the Mars Society, it's no surprise that Zubrin sees Martian colonization and development to be key, though he acknowledges the potential of Lunar and asteroidal resources. He believes that governments will lead the way to space with private enterprise following and providing support services. I'm more optimistic that private efforts will play a leading role.

Zubrin looks at potential technologies consistent with our current knowledge of physics that might enable humans to travel, live, and prosper in the inner solar system, the outer solar system, and interstellar space. The most striking point in his analysis is that relatively fast interstellar spacecraft that could carry humans would expend an enormous amount of energy. They could easily become weapons of mass destruction, a sobering thought.