August 24, 2020

Wyoming

Devils Tower View Campground Devils Tower, Wyoming

A short walk this morning.

Breakfast spot at City Hall in Amidon.

We spent most of our day on a long straight road through 200 miles of wide-open space, grassland and ranches.  We passed modern day cowboys herding cattle, using a pickup truck and two ATV’s…no cowboy hats and no horses.  There were of course corn fields and hay bales, and lots of antelope. 

We passed a convoy of trucks, three with enormous over-sized loads that took over most of the roadway.  The flagger in the lead car motioned for us to get over and out of the way, but we had to find a place to put our big self!  Of course, there was a narrow bridge!

We passed from North Dakota into South Dakota without any discernable difference in the landscape.  We made a turn at Belle Fourche and then entered Wyoming.  Almost immediately the terrain changed and became rockier, greener, with tall ponderosa pines. 

Our destination today was Devils Tower National Monument.  We got settled in our campsite and then wandered over to the park to get a map.  It was late in the afternoon and it was 96 degrees.  We decided to drive through and get information so that we could plan a hike for tomorrow. 

Devils Tower was the nation’s first monument.  It was dedicated in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt.  This rock formation stands 1,200 feet above the Belle Fourche River Valley.  We could see the silhouette from more than 17 miles away.  It is composed of a rare igneous rock, phonolite porphyry.  The columns are a complex pattern of interlocking hexagons. No one is certain how this particular structure was formed but as you can imagine there are lots of opinions/theories. 

The Northern Plains Tribes have lived here for more than 10,000 years.  This place is a holy place and rituals and celebrations are still held here.  This is believed to be a place where the natural world and the spirit world come together.  Prayer cloths and bundles are left in the trees.

The Native American tribes in the area have sacred narratives about the formation of the tower…or as they had called it “Bears Lodge.” 

This evening we walked to the restaurant at the campground.  We had read reviews about the bison burgers.  We were going to take our food back to the RV but there was only one other party in the restaurant.  It felt really nice to sit down and eat and the burgers were delicious! It is the first time we have sat down in a restaurant in 5 months!

The canyon behind the campground.

Sunset.