Devils Tower National Monument

At 5:30 am I hiked to the top of the trail around Devils Tower. It was 45 degrees and very still, the only sound was the wind whistling through the Ponderosa Pine trees. The valley below has a river run through where I camped for the night. The camping was primitive but very peaceful.  Just as the entire park is.

 Devils Tower from the start of the hike to top of trail.

The Northern Plains Indians have a legend that the great bear from the sky has made the vertical scratch marks on the Devils Tower.

There are sacred "Prayer Ribbons" left by the Northern Plains Indians.

Devils Tower is made of Igneous rock (previously molten) from a volcano that had sedimentary rock and soil around the cone of volcano. Over the years the sedimentary  rock and soil eroded away leaving the Tower. The scratch lines are due to the cubic structure of the rock eroding away.  In other areas of Wyoming and Montana can be seen smaller "towers" of rock of similar structure.

View while driving into Devils Tower Monument Park

At the entrance to the park are hundreds of Prairie Dogs and their mounds.
While walking across the Prairie Dog town there was an alarm sounded. The little doggies popping their heads up to look and then ducked back down into their holes. Now I know how "Wack a Mole" was thought of as a game. Sorry little doggies.


Now I am off to Billings, Montana as an intermediate stop on the way to Great Falls, Montana.

Billings has a Rim View of their city as Billings is surrounded by mountains and high ridges on two sides.
When I left for Great Falls, Montana the next morning at 4:00 am the city was all lit up very bright.