Devils Tower in our back window - Wyoming

It was with some sadness that we left the Black Hills since we have enjoyed it so much during this last week. We headed off to Devils Tower in Northeast Wyoming and were delighted to find ourselves passing through more of the Black Hills for most of the journey there. After a pleasant ride through the Black Hills in Wyoming, we were startled to suddenly see Devils Tower right in front of us as we came to the top of a hill at least 8 miles away from the tower. We had wonderful views of Devils Tower around every other bend in the road until we actually pulled into the KOA Campground right outside the Park Service entrance to the monument. When we pulled into our assigned spot in the campground, we noticed that, but for some trees right in front of us, we would have actually had a view of Devils Tower from our campsite. After wandering around the campground, we found an empty campsite with a gorgeous view of Devils Tower. We talked to the campground staff and were able to persuade them to let us switch sites. So here is the gorgeous view of Devils Tower looking out our back window.

After having lunch at our picnic table enjoying this view of the tower, we drove up to the tower for a close-up view. The Park Service has put in a loop trail around the tower which we took advantage of to see the tower from all different angles. Jo took over 300 pictures of the tower, which is a testament both to how much we enjoyed it and how much photo editing she has ahead of her. Lots of the photos show the big boulders and mounds of ruble at the base of the tower, giving the impression that pieces are falling off of it all the time. We were relieved to be told, however, by a park ranger that no major rock falls have occurred for the last 10,000 years. We were also surprised to learn that the record for climbing from the bottom to the top of the tower was 18 minutes!!!!!!

We saw some climbers coming down from the tower as we started our hike and saw some more heading up the tower in the middle of the afternoon. We were grateful for their providing us some colorful additions to the photographs (although all you can see are tiny white specks from their helmets), but no way in heck we would ever have wanted to be climbing up those steep rock walls.

After returning to the campground we spent the next several hours repeatedly glancing out the windows because we could not get enough of the view. We were sorry to see the end of twilight when our view of Devils Tower was lost in the darkened sky.