7 Apr 2022
We woke up this morning to the howling of wind once again, but a quick look at the weather forecast showed that things were calmer out west, so we decided to hit the road and drive to Devil’s Tower. I made this dino-friend while Matt refueled the car:
Leaving Rapid City, the weather hadn’t improved much- still overcast and the wind was still blowing as strong as ever, but Matt’s a machine and he powered through.
A new state!
There was a surprising amount of snow here still- the slushy roads were just like driving back home:
These cows are all grazing on the single stripe of green grass:
There it is! Devil’s Tower:
And looking the other direction- cool red rocks and mountains!
The clouds started breaking the closer we got, so here’s a nice shot of the tower with some cows:
When we checked in with the Ranger at the entry station, she commented on how crazy the wind has been- good to know this is an unusual occurrence and we apparently just have bad timing.
The tower just kinda dwarfs everything around it:
Some more vibrant red rocks:
Our hike would take us around the base of the tower:
Here’s Matt, crazy Wisconsinite, hiking in shorts in 30* weather (I think we topped out at about 37*)- BRR!!!
I, on the other hand, was more appropriately dressed in leggings, pants, long sleeves and a winter jacket:
(little camera has some crazy lens flare going on)
Look at this cute little red squirrel! He was chittering away at us-
The other side of the tower was much sunnier and warmer (I still think Matt’s crazy):
Devil’s Tower is a sacred site for many native people, some of whom tie prayer cloths and other bundles to the trees- I liked this feather one:
“The Window”
Bear den?
Look at the cool shapes! Most of the columns that form the tower are hexagonal:
Us!
As we came around the… corner? of the tower, this side took on a greenish hue:
Every time we came to a clearing, I’d take a picture:
Same tower, different angle:
I propped my little camera up with some fruit snack packages to get this picture 🙂
Not-so-columnar-swirls:
Not the greatest picture, because I wasn’t quite sure what I was aiming at, but that on the left side of the picture is a wooden ladder- back in the 1890s, two ranchers decided to summit the tower and built this ladder to assist them. Crazy:
The valley below:
The boulder field below:
Proof I was here:
Driving back down from the tower, we stopped so I could grab some pictures of more cool red rocks:
and then pulled off to watch the prairie dogs!
They would pop out of their holes and chitter away:
Cool rocks behind prairie dog prairie:
I spotted this cool sculpture from the car and hiked down to take a picture:
This little guy’s hole was close to the road, and he ran over to an even closer hole!!
Goodbye, Devil’s Tower!
Hello, snow-covered mountain:
Fortunately, the wind was starting to die down- it was still breezy and the gusts were still quite strong, but it no longer felt like we were going to be blown off the road, so we drove through part of the Black Hills along the Spearfish Canyon scenic byway:
Landscape pictures never turn out as well as I want them to:
But the views were quite gorgeous:
Bridal Falls:
A mountain goat! …with a GPS collar… Matt named him George:
I love the stick straight, skinny pine trees:
There were a couple other hikes I wanted to do through this area, but they too were snow-covered and honestly, trudging through slushy, slippery, melting snow just didn’t sound like fun, so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel.
