Devil’s Tower

Yesterday we arrived at what I have always felt was the real gateway to a Western adventure, sorry St. Louis. Devils Tower, a unique 800+ foot tall natural rock tower, was made 50 million years ago from magma filling up the void of a volcano and slowly cooling. The extremely slow cooling cycle caused huge pillars of ingenuous rock to form similar to Devils Post Piles but on a much larger scale. Fifty million years of erosion have washed eight hundred to a thousand feet of surrounding sedimentary rock away leaving an amazing sight in North East Wyoming.
Regan and I were last here together in June of 2002 on our cross country drive from CT to WA between CGA graduation and reporting to our first afloat assignments.

We planned two nights at the national monument camp ground, Belle Fourche, but again because of the heat decided to book at the full service KOA a mile away with the same great view of the Tower. We can run the AC on the batteries and generator but not forever and not without making a bit of noise. We’ll have time for some boondocking when it isn’t so close to 100 degrees.

Early bird get’s the worm as they say, so we were up at 6am and on the three mile trail around the tower by 7. Not only is the hiking easier before the heat of the day settles in but the abundance of wildlife is significantly better. We were treated to sleeping juvenile deer, young bucks, rabbits, peregrine falcons (which nest on the cliffs), butterflies and caterpillars and climbers using one of over 200 official routes to ascend the top.

Last night we played bingo, with Aleah taking home a cash prize win and Regan and I winning door prizes. Following that a 45 minute lightening show over and around Devils Tower. I’m ready with a lightening photography app for our next show. On the docket for tonight is an outdoor viewing of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” with the tower as a backdrop.

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