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Devils Tower National Monument

Thursday, 9/29/2011

Mountain View RV Park

Sundance, WY


Wednesday, the 28th, was a travel day for us.  We left Heartland RV Park south of Hermosa, SD, and headed north on SD79 to I90.  We drove westbound about two hours to Sundance, WY.  We’re staying at the Mountain View RV Park.
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We’re here to see Devils Tower National Monument.  I visited this place with my parents many, many years ago.  As a young person, I didn’t get much out of it.  I thought it looked like a big gigantic stump.  But now, I’m truly in awe of it.
Today, Thursday, we drove over to Devils Tower.
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Sorry, the sign is a bit weathered.  What a sight this is.  I took many pictures of this grand landmark.  These first two photos are from along the highway leading to the park.
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Here are some more photos from inside the park…
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Circle of Sacred Smoke Sculpture represents the first puff of smoke from a newly lit pipe.  The sculptor is Junkyu Muto.  The sculpture honors the American people as a gesture of world peace.  It was designed to raise visitor awareness of the importance of the tower to over twenty different tribes who consider the tower a sacred place.
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We hiked the 1.3 mile Tower Trail which circles all the way around the tower.  Most of the trail is in a Ponderosa Pine forest.  The trail is paved and has benches for those who want/need to take a break. 
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The hike was quite peaceful.  We enjoyed stopping occasionally and just listening to the sounds of the forest.  The views of the tower were awesome.  The tower changes color depending on the way the sunlight hits it.  There were rock climbers on the tower today, two are right about in the middle of each of these photos.
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Some views from the trail out over the valley below…
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A couple of views of the tower from the first half of the trail…
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Looking almost straight up…
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A view through the trees…
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we made it this far and kept on hiking…
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this fallen tree looked like a Praying Mantis to me…
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more views through the trees…
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twisted trees and twisted trail…
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We made it all the way around the tower successfully.  After we got back to the car we took a short break for a snack and then headed out.  Here are some fall colors…
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prairie dogs…
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a couple more of the tower from the park road…
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and one more sign.
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We both really enjoyed our time here.  It was worth the trip out here.  Tomorrow is another travel day.  This was our view out our back window.
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7 comments:

  1. We really enjoyed our trip to Devil's Tower last fall. I especially liked the prayer ribbons & beads hanging from the trees along the trail.

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  2. It's an awesome place in the best sense of that over used word. So glad you enjoyed it and had the peace and quiet that off season brings to do it.

    Your pictures are wonderful!

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  3. Very interesting. I really liked the smoke sculpture. Beautiful!

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  4. I knew there was a trail around the tower but didn't realize it was 13 miles. That's quite a hike.

    It sure is a beautiful wonder of nature to see and enjoy. :c)

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  5. Another place that is so on our to do list.

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  6. Awesome! We have not made it to the western part of South Dakota yet. Nice pictures,keep them coming.

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