DAY 13
Got out of the hotel around 9:30am heading for Devils Tower. Along the
way we lost another quail. <sigh>
This part of the country is rolling hills, sure, but
ultimately boring.
Coal mining here.
Just got into Moorcroft, which is the biggest town near DT. I
feel like I’m making a pilgrimage. This one feels powerful even from a
distance.
Just saw a pronghorn grazing by the side of the road. Kewl!
A lot of dead trees; evidence of old forest fires. The fire
hazard scale is at its highest right now – in the red. Signs abound cautioning
against throwing cigarettes or matches out of your car.
We see the tower off in the distance, a lone and very
eccentric structure out here. There are other outcroppings but nothing quite
like it.
…
Devil’s Tower is magnificent. It would be even more
magnificent if there weren’t so many loudmouth tourists hanging around.
Interestingly, there have, apparently, always been tourists here. The natives visited and used it as a
landmark, but didn’t hang around much. The white settlers even treated it
(mostly) with respect. It has been, and will always be, a place to revere.
You can’t help but amazed at the sheer majesty of this piece
of rock thrusting out of the ground. (It kind of looks like an incredibly large
petrified tree stump.) While Yellowstone was our first national park, Devils
Tower was our first natural national monument (thank you Teddy Roosevelt,
again.)
For those who don’t
know, the geologic story is that there was an intrusion of magma from deep in
the earth that never erupted (thus magma rather than lava). Over time the magma
cooled and started fracturing. The
Belle Fourche River (pronounced ‘fish’ and meaning ‘beautiful fork’ in French)
carved away at the landscape, slowly revealing what was to become the tower. There
are very few of these types of geologic intrusions in the world.
Another amazing factoid is that the top of the tower used to
be under miles of earth. Now it’s the tallest thing in sight.
No wonder the aliens in the movie used it as a landmark.
Everyone else did. (And no, there have been no recorded sightings of UFO’s
around the tower. What a shame L
Right now I’m sitting at the ladies latrine writing this
while the battery is charging on the computer. About 5 feet away is a small
bird sitting on the ground staring at me. At the campsite there was a robin
sitting on the grill that didn’t move for at least 10 minutes, and I got within
feet of it. In the tree above Animals’ bedding, a dove hung out for an extended
time.
Only the prairie dogs seem to be skittish around people.
Btw, the little bird is apparently a new fledgling. He’s
flown off now.
In the distance vultures are circling the tower. On the
electric line above me the birds are blue (not sad - the color.) There are also
some blackish birds with white spots. I’ll check out what they all are later.
Sad news; due to an unfortunate circumstance another quail
has died, and we nearly lost another due to the heat. So now we are at five.
We are camping at the monument tonight; Animal outside and
me in the van. (Yes, I’m still a wuss).
Even though there’s a good breeze we’re going to wait until
after 8pm to do the hike. Hopefully most of the tourists will be gone.
Much as I’m glad we’ve come here, I’m sorry that it is one
of the more popular destinations. The other places we’ve visited had very few
people, and we were able to listen to nature rather than voices and machinery.
…
We did the right thing to wait. When we got to the parking
lot only a few cars were there and very few people were setting off. We got to
a split in the trail, and while everyone else went to the right we took the
left-hand fork. On occasion we would run into people coming from the opposite
direction and would nod in acknowledgement, but mostly it was quiet, which is
what I was hoping for.
One other thing I had hoped for but had not known if it
would be possible was a chance to actually touch the rock face. I got my
opportunity, and I must say it was akin to a religious experience (another one!
LOL)
(I cannot stress enough that if you are, at all, interested
in nature, you MUST see this!)
Since we started so late we ended the hike at the very edge
of full darkness, but the trail was clearly marked so no possibility of getting
lost.
We drove back to the campsite and parked the van so I could
see the mountain from inside. It was a moonless night but the sky was clear.
The Milky Way was more evident than I’ve ever witnessed it before. We saw a few
meteors zip by as well as a satellite or two. The mountain itself was a black
silhouette, clearly outlined. And up on the face you could see the lights of
crazy people who were ascending or descending in the dark. (Insanity – thy name
is rock climber.)
Our campsite was only yards away from the Belle Fourche
river. A. found her way to it and took a swim. I sat by it for a brief time but
the mountain chill (I got cold!) finally drove me into the van. I went to sleep
with the van door open watching the progression of the Big Dipper as it wheeled
around the mountaintop.
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