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Published: August 9th 2007
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Wyoming became the 44th state in 1890. Devils Tower became the first National Monument in 1906. Teddy Roosevelt was President at that time. The various Native American tribes had different names for The Tower and many had bear in the name, such as Bear Lodge. There are many legends and the one that we saw a picture of included a bear scratching the side to get to some children on the top of the tower. It is a sacred area and is still the center for ceremonies. June is especially sacred and there is a request for a voluntary refrain from climbing The Tower.
Devils Tower is 865 feet high and the top is the size of a football field. We hiked around the base of Devils Tower. It’s 1 ¼ mile trail and is supposed to take about 40 minutes. We stopped frequently and took a lot of pictures, so of course it took us longer. We encountered minimal sun and light misty rain. Whenever the sun would shine, we’d hurry to an area that had a good view of The Tower.
We camped in the National Campground and had a great view of Devil’s Tower from our
The road to Devils Tower
You don't sneak up on it. It doesn't sneak up un you. windows. I had hoped for some sun in the morning to get some different pictures, but the rain that started the night before continued through the next day. We headed out towards our next destination. Due to the rain and the hills, we opted not to hook up the car until we reached flatter terrain. It rained and the wind blew and it rained some more. We drove separately for longer than we planned. Finally we hooked up and I went out to check the lights and missed the step. Actually the step failed to fully extend into position, which it does automatically, when the door is opened. We had this problem a few years ago when there had been a lot of rain, so now we wait and check that there is actually a step before we step down.
Once we got underway, I settled into the copilot’s seat with Neeko stretched out beside me. The wind was fierce and we checked the radio to see if there were any advisories. The weather report only mentioned the temperature and the rain, with no mention at all of the wind! We both agreed that strong winds must just be
Devils Tower Sign
The legend of the girls and the bear. the norm for this area. All of a sudden there is a loud snap and a lot of noise coming from the right side of the RV. I thought something more had occurred with the misbehaving step, but then realized it was coming from further toward the front of the coach. I caught site of our awning unrolling and trying to become a spinnaker! We hustle out and had to pull the awning down to keep it from snapping and ripping. This was no easy task with the amount of wind we were experiencing. I was hanging on to the awning using more my weight to keep it down than my strength. We were able to extend the metal support arms which helped, but we still needed to keep more tension on it by holding it. We tried various techniques to get it to roll back up, finally it did and George secured it with multiple cable ties. We were fortunate that George had decided to put a taller ladder in our storage compartment, or he never would have been able to reach the area he needed to reach today to secure our awning.
In our haste to exit
the coach we didn’t put away any snack food. Lizzie our dog with separation and rain issues kept an eye on us through various windows. As George was putting on the last cable tie, I realized that the reason we had not seen Neeko at the window was because he was having a great time eating what ever was available. I quickly went back inside to find the guilty party chowing down on Rice Cakes. He had been quite busy while we were outside. Fortunately it’s Plain Rice Cakes that are his favorite, so he should have no problem having consumed a larger quantity than we would have given him.
When George pulled off onto the shoulder of the road due to the awning, he tried to put the emergency flashers on. They didn’t work, but that was the least of our concerns at the time. Once the awning was secured, we headed on our way and found that the turn signals no longer worked. At this point we’re beginning to wonder “What next?” We stopped for gas and I pumped while George tried to fix the new problem. He didn’t have any success, so we continued on to
Sign 2
This is a sacred place. Sheridan where I wanted to buy some groceries. We parked far out in the lot and I got the dogs ready for a quick trip to a tree, and it started raining even harder. The dogs got a bit wet, as they just don’t get the concept that we should all try and stay under the umbrella. I left the dogs in the RV with George who continued to try to get to the bottom of the turn-signal problem, while I went shopping. It was a great store, the produce was fresh, there was a good selection of meat and fish, and they even had Coke in glass bottles! George found me by the checkout and told me the good news that we have turn-signals again. Then the cashier asked it either of us was over 55 as Thursday was senior discount day. We both admitted that we qualified and were happy to save some money. The rain had stopped as we walked out of the store and the wind seemed not to be as strong. We revised our destination for the day and camped before we headed into the next set of mountains. Our fridge and freezer are filled,
Devils Tower 2
The ridges do look as if they had been caused by claws of giant bears trying to climb to the top. we’ve had our share of problems and rough weather, now we’re ready to “Let the good times roll” as we head further west.
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