Geezers, Wyoming and South Dakota - We Visit the Devi's Tower

Day 18

Today we are going to the Devil’s Tower National Monument. It is about an hour and half’s drive back into Wyoming.  I first visited the Devil’s Tower when I was eight years old and have been fascinated by it ever since.  As many of you know, it was featured in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.

The weather today was supposed to be partly cloudy with temperatures in the mid 70's, but when we got up the sky was heavily overcast.  This morning we decided to have a full breakfast for a change so went to the hotel restaurant and ate.  We were on the road by 9:30 and arrived at the Devil’s Tower just after 11:00.  The skies were still overcast, which was very disappointing because the gray rock of the Devil’s Tower blends right in with the sky.

Our first view of the Devil's Tower.

 

After checking out the visitor’s center, I decided to take the hike around the

Tower.  It is a relatively easy 1.3 mile hike with a few uphill sections, but not really too bad.  It was a nice hike and I took pictures from every angle (way too many pictures).

I start my walk around the Devil's Tower.

Looking down at the surrounding countryside.

After I returned we started our trip back to Deadwood, but we did stop on the way out of the park at the large prairie dog town.  Many things have changed in the park, but the prairie dog town was there when I first visited way back in 1956.

A view of the Devil's Tower from the prairie dog town.

After taking some pictures, we drove out of the park and spotted a bunch of cars parked along the road ahead.  As we drew near we saw a herd of long horned cattle and a couple of buffalo in a field with the Devil’s Tower in the background.  It was really too perfect of a photo opportunity to pass up so we joined the stopped cars.  Unfortunately after having the sun break through while we were at the prairie dog town, the sky was overcast again, which was the only thing that spoiled the pictures.

After getting all the pictures we wanted we once again stared back to Deadwood.  We had decided to take a back road for part of the way back so we drove north to the small town of Hulett, WY where we had lunch.  Hulett was a small town of about 300, which looked very neat and tidy and well kept.  After lunch we started east and went through the even smaller town of Alva, which was the opposite of Hubert, run down with junk piled everywhere.  Finally after a very pleasant and scenic drive through the back country we got back on Interstate 90 and were back in Deadwood by 4:00.

A modern day cowboy herding his cattle.

We have a long drive tomorrow so after spending some time in the casino and getting something to eat we called it a night.  Val had a very good night tonight and won a $400 jackpot.

The next stop on our journey is Whitefish, Montana, which is just outside of Glacier National Park.  To get there we have to drive all the way across Montana so we planned to do it in two days.  We had intended to stop in Bozeman tomorrow night, but there was not a hotel vacancy in town (there was a big concert) so we are staying in Butte instead.  This means we have a longer drive tomorrow and then a short one from Butte to Whitefiish.