The Devil's In The Details

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2014 trip so far:  pronghorn, horse, llama, elk, bison, grizzly, bighorn sheep, mule deer, Uinta ground squirrel, wolf, black bear, moose, coyote, fox, bullsnake, bat, white-tailed jackrabbit, mountain goat, yellow-bellied marmot, river otter, longhorn cattle, prairie dog

*Birds we’ve seen on our 2014 trip so far: bald eagle, grouse, osprey, magpie, red-tailed hawk, Canada goose, great horned owl, American kestrel, sandhill crane, cliff swallow, mountain bluebird, Ferruginous hawk, cinnamon teal, Clark’s nutcracker, northern flicker, Brewer’s blackbird, red-winged blackbird, Lazuli bunting, common merganser, American white pelican

 

 [Click on any photo to enlarge.]

We left Yellowstone through the north entrance, and just a short drive continuing north, one can easily spot a formation known as the Devil’s Slide.  Located on the side of the Cinnabar Mountain is a formation with two parallel vertical walls of rock each standing about 125 ft. high alongside a red shale “slide”, all the result of millions of years of earthquakes, volcanoes, and erosion.  Now the funny thing is that we have passed this formation many times over the past few years always seeing the red slide, but it wasn’t until this summer after watching an aerial view documentary on the Yellowstone area that we even noticed the vertical walls! J

 

After a night spent in the Sam’s Club parking lot in Billings, MT, we continued our way east, passing through the Crow Indian Reservation, past the Little Bighorn Battlefield, and past the Northern Cheyenne Ancestral Burial Monument (at right) on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.  We’ve passed this many times, but it’s obviously not a spot for public visitation.

 

Our destination was Devils Tower National Monument (http://www.nps.gov/deto/) in WY, a place we had visited 5 years ago.  Back then we had stayed at the KOA just outside the park entrance, but now that we are seasoned RVers and know how to properly dry camp, we had made reservations to stay at the campground inside the park.  Most trees still had their beautiful yellow fall leaves, we had a great view of the monument, and Abby even got to chase her ball for a bit!

Devils Tower was America’s first national monument and can be seen for miles (this was our first view of it on our way there). It is 5,112 feet above sea level, 1,267 above the river that helped form it, and 867 feet from its base to the top.  (Many of you probably

recognize it from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind though we’ve never seen any aliens or spaceships when we’ve visited. J)  Contrary to popular belief, the tower did not rise up from the ground through the earth. Instead the process began 60 million years ago as molten magma pushed up into the rock above it. As the magma cooled, it contracted and fractured into the grooved columns. Over millions of years the softer rock and sediment

surrounding the hard volcanic rock eroded away exposing the tower, and every side seems to offer a different view.

 

However, according to Native American legends, the columns on the tower were created by claw
   marks of a large bear, and each tribe has their own version of how this occurred. The photo at right of a painting in the visitor center depicts the Kiowa legend.

 

     The monument is a very popular tourist destination but especially for the nearly 5,000 climbers who come every year from all over the world to climb its massive columns.  The area is sacred ground to many American Indian tribes and is still used for cere-
monies and worship today. Many of these ceremonies occur during the month of June, and there is a ban on climbing during this time which is why we hadn’t seen any climbers during the last visit but that wasn’t the case this time.  We saw probably at least half a dozen spread out across the side where we were standing plus a very
proud fella who had made it all the way to the top.  If you look closely at the photo above left, you can see two climbers...one in a blue top lower left and one in a white top standing upper right.  Amazing to watch these crazy people!  We didn’t walk all the way around but heard from others that several folks were climbing on all sides.

 

Throughout the park you see prayer cloths or bundles tied to trees. These are brightly colored cloths that sometimes contain herbs, tobacco, or something symbolic to the individual, and after a prayer is said, the cloth is tied to the tree so the wind may blow the prayer up to the Great Spirit.

 

Near the campground is a sculpture called “Circle of Sacred Smoke” which honors the American people and was created as a gesture of world peace. The sculpture was dedicated in 2008 and represents the first puff of smoke from a newly lit pipe used by tribal people
to pray.  Newly added since our last visit was the World Peace Pole that reads “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in English on one side and in the Lakota Indian language on the other.  It was dedicated on June 16, 2012, at an anniversary celebration honoring the first World Peace and Prayer Day that was held at Devils Tower in 1996.

 

The other “attraction” at the park seems to be the prairie dog colony.  These animals live together in closely-knit groups called “towns” and are very social creatures.  Each family unit consists of one adult male, several
   adult females, and their offspring. The town itself is made up of an elaborate network of interconnecting tunnels and multiple entrance holes that provide escape routes.  Prairie dogs are active only during daylight hours, and are very vocal creatures, sending out warning
barks that send everyone diving into the tunnels.  These tunnels may go down 3-10 ft. and horizontally 10-15 ft. and are where they spend more than half their lives.  (The photo at left shows a placard in the park that illustrates their tunnel system.)  They sure are interesting critters to watch!

 

We had a nice couple of relaxing days at Devils Tower, but it was time to move on and keep heading south and east.