At about noon we headed out of Deadwood which is a small town nestled in the Black Hills. On a side note, I would not reccomend visiting Deadwood. Even though it has a rich wild west history including being the location where Buffalo Bill was shot while playing poker, it has been reduced to a cheap-ish casino town. Watching people waste $$$ they don't have @ slot machines depressed me. On top of that, the casinos were deserted & the prime rib this evening was terrible. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
The drive to Wyoming was beautiful. The sky was incredibly blue with puffy cotton ball clouds. The grassy prairie hills were dotted with black Holstein cows, running horses, & the occasional llama. Shortly before the turnoff for Devil's Tower we drove through the small town of Sundance where they hold an annual film festival that is pretty famous. Someone took the time to arrange white rocks on the hill to spell Sundance & perhaps remind those from Hollywood of home.
As we continued to drive, the 900 foot tower was easy to spot from about 20 minutes out. Suddenly, SNAP, my mothers worst nightmare came true as one of the cables holding the luggage carrier came completely loose. Luckily I was driving during our disaster (again) & was able to pull over before the wind took the carrier over the hills & far away. (K&D... the debate as to whether we need buy a new luggage rack or more bungee cords is still raging on at this moment.)
At the tower the first thing we did was pick up Tommy's Jr Ranger booklet which turned out to be a scavenger hunt for the Tower Trail. After a bit of 'stress' over not being able to find a deer or rabbit he is sworn in & awarded his pin & patch. :) The Tower Trail is a little over a mile long & takes you right next to the base of the Tower. Without a permit you are still allowed to climb the boulder field as seen in the movie Close Encounters. Many people did get their permits & we spotted them repelling down from the top, which is about the size of a football field. I'll have to post a pic later of how small the climbers looked. Unless they were wearing red they were almost impossible to see without binoculars. The Tower Trail was beyond cool yet not too strenuous, so my parents enjoyed it. My Dad was particularly interested in the Turkey Vultures which glided over the top of the Tower all day. I was surprised that the Tower was surrounded by coniferous forest.
At this point we decided to split up. I wanted to tackle the moderately difficult Red Bluffs trail to Prairie Dog Town & my parents would take Tom & drive there. The things I saw on the hike blew me away as well as every other hike I've done including my beloved Starved Rock. I walked through the forest & then around a hillside prairie covered with yellow & purple wildflowers. The wind was practically singing as I approached the prairie dogs. I decended about 150 feet down when they started barking at me. I'm not kidding, they made eye contact. I was greatful for signage that explained that prairie dogs are mean, bite, & have fleas that carry the bubonic plague. Not a lot of people know you can still get the plague from fleas in the Southwest. In fact a biologist recently died from it in the Grand Canyon. Yuck. Plague... no thanks. They are cute from a distance. Ha ha!
I was disappointed when my time was up & I had to turn back after only completing 25% of the trail. This was really just a warm up for Yellowstone. :) I'm still planning to buy the fire hydrant of pepper spray for the bears JIC. I don't mean to be negative but it would be my luck to run into a large angry mammal. So... a really long drive & Yellowstone in the late afternoon tomorrow. Bye. :)))))
No comments:
Post a Comment