Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming
We packed up our camp and headed to the Tower. Devils Tower is volcanic in nature, the theory is that hundreds of thousands of years ago, magma welled up inside a soft mountain, and over the eons the mountain eroded away, leaving the hardened tower we see today. We stopped at the visitor center first, then we walked the trail around the mountain, and up it as high as we could get without technical climbing permits. Tyler clambered up the rocks like a billy goat! We watched some professional climbers going up the steep face through the binoculars, but we were getting a double image- probably because Tyler had dropped them back at Mount Rushmore!
The Tower is a mecca for professional climbers all around the world-- hundreds of people climb to the top every year.
not going as high as these guys!
We were able to get as high as the point where it went completely verticle, but you need equipment after that. There are actually chipmunks living at the top of the tower...even though there is no way for them to get up or down! They have been up there for many chipmunk generations, probably carried there and escaped from some bird of prey. Can't be much for them to eat up there! Living on bug and grasses, maybe? The views were terrific, even though we didn't go all the way to the top! We did some exploring around on the rocks, then headed back down. We then went back to the visitor center to get T shirts, souvenirs, and water. When we finished there, we were headed off to Montana....next stop, the Little Bighorn Battlefield! There was evidence of a recent fire as we were leaving the park, as the hills were all blackened and barren, but the trees seemed to be OK.
