Devils Tower, Wyoming and chores

Devils Tower National Monument, and a visit with Norah and Howie was the plan for Saturday, as well as some housekeeping chores.

Saturday dawned, bright and pretty, so it was a good day to do those "chores". The windows really wanted to be washed; Bob washed the outside while I did the inside. All the screens were removed,vacuumed and cleaned. It is amazing how well the screens, tracks and windows are designed and built, to stay in such good shape after rolling down the roads in a MH that is almost seven years old. They still look like new, which makes me a happy camper.

Then the Vacuum Queen vacuumed every square inch of everything, and Bob washed the toad, so those little chores are done and out of the way, before we get to Escapade.

With the morning chores complete, we headed about 30 miles north of Sundance up to Devils Tower. Devils Tower was the first national monument in America, set aside by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. So Wyoming is the home of both the first National Park (Yellowstone in 1872), and the first National Monument.

The tower, about 50 million years old, is a geological formation, formed when magma welled up into the surrounding sedimentary rock, then cooled and hardened. Over the years, old rivers eroded the sedimentary rock, leaving the harder, igneous rock formation in the shape now known as "Devils Tower", towering about 867 feet over the terrain. The Tower was culturally important to the tribal Indians that inhabited the area, as they believed that the "Great Spirit" pushed the tower up from the ground to save their braves from impending doom.


The landscape here in this part of northeastern Wyoming is lush, rolling green grasslands and Ponderosa pine covered hills, dotted with red clay outcroppings. There are many cattle farms; sheep, cattle and deer are abundant as they graze on the grasslands. I would guess that we saw close to a hundred deer, having their evening meal on the hillsides, as we drove the 30 odd miles back out to the Interestate. I know some "hunting men" at home who would just love to be out here during hunting season. (Two of them had anniversaries this week!) :)

Norah and Howie and Toby and Simba greeted us as soon as we arrived at the campground in Devils Tower!! It was so good to see them again....we all had such great fun, braving wind and cold together in Quartzsite this winter.

We enjoyed visiting out in the warm sunshine, then Norah and Howie grilled up some salmon and veggies for a delicious dinner. We got our Toby and Simba fix, and had a delighful afternoon.

We will meet up with them again on Monday when we all arrive in Gillette for the Escapade.... It was a wonderful day with good friends.


We were really impressed by the "snow fences" along the roads here. They are a heavy duty variety! The snow must be bodacious here...thank goodness we're not around to find out!!

And lastly this photo of the sign at the entrance to the campground store...

Some folks just have a way with words!