Devils Tower and on into South Dakota

We are spending four days in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, so we decided to stop at Devils Tower in Wyoming today on our way to South Dakota.  Our hotel last night was disappointing and not real clean, but it was quiet.  We vowed that we would not stay in hotels that don't feel right to us from now on.  Of course this was easy to do in light of the fact that I had already reserved a cabin for four nights - now we had to hope it was a nice cabin!

We drove the two and a half hours to Devils Tower with no problem.  Dennis had been there when he was a kid on a family camping trip.  I have never been to any part of Wyoming and had only experienced Devils Tower by seeing its majesty in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  It is a stunning sight.  I had to read about the geology of the Devils Tower and now I know what a butte is. 

 Devils Tower from a distance

 From a distance with zoom lense

We could see it for several miles before we arrived at the National Monument entrance.  I have to give a big hurrah to the National Forest Service!  In our travels we have noticed that the Forest Service does a great job of maintaining our national park lands and does a great job of showing them to best advantage.  In Glacier National Park and at Garnet Ghost Town and at Devils Tower the park service has been careful to offer excellent opportunities to get great pictures.  Approaching Devils Tower there are pull offs where visitors can take great long distance shots (even goofy shots like Dennis holding the monument).  And on the 1.3 mile trail around the bottom of Devils Tower there are benches and small shady spots where a photographer can get a clear shot.  I really appreciated this today.

 Devils Tower from the foot of the butte

 Do you see the rock climber in this picture?

 The Tower through the trees.

 Dennis holding the Tower in his hands.

Dennis got this picture of a golden eagle flying over the Tower.

I would love to show you all of the awesome pictures we took, but there were more than 70!  I wanted to get photos of the Tower from every side.  It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for showing the shadows and columns of the monument.  We walked and stopped and took pictures and talked to other tourists and heard the languages of the many visitors to this location.  It was fun.

When we jumped back on the road again, we took state roads south through rural Wyoming until we reached US 16.  We turned east and headed into South Dakota.  Our destination was Custer City, outside of Custer State Park.  We had to use our phones to find the bungalows where we were staying and the phone was not completely accurate.  But we got here finally and registered with our host, Scott.  We are in cabin 4 which looks out at a nice pond, lots of trees, and rocky portions of the Black Hills.  It is somewhat remote, very quiet and kind of like camping but in a really nice cabin.  The cabin has a bedroom, living room (with a TV that doesn't get a signal), a small but nice (and clean) bathroom, and, best of all, a kitchen.  The kitchen has lots of pots, pans, dishes, and silver ware.  All we had to do was go to the grocery store so I could finally fix a meal!  Yay!!  We will eat some meals in restaurants, but it is great to fix our own food.

Into South Dakota for our Black Hills adventure.

Tomorrow we will start our Black Hills exploration with Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park.  This discovery process is the reason we travel and we are so glad we can do it.