The Awesome Devil's Tower - What A Sight!

Now tell me Devil's Tower is not an amazing sight.  It's not hard to understand why it became our first national monument.  It is an absolutely incredible unexplainable phenomenon.  We arrived about 3:00 pm and walked the 1.6-mile trail around the entire circumference of the tower.  The scenery was breathtaking.  I can only hope that my photos will do it justice.  

We had the perfect sunny day with a clear blue sky and perfect temperature with a slight breeze to hike an often-steep trail.  Let me tell you, it was worth every ounce of effort to see this beauty in its entirety.

        

I took a million photos while we were there but can only share a few of them here.  There were forest fires here last summer so there were lots of scorched and burned trees around.  It's hard to imagine a fire destroying this area.  Fortunately, they were able to spare most of the trees.  

  

Looking down into the valley below Devil's Tower is just stunning!  What a visit!!

We had a fantastic dinner in Hulett, Wyoming and then made it to Buffalo, Wyoming before calling it a night.  We traveled a total of 553 miles on Sunday.  

We Made it to Wyoming!

Wyoming didn't disappoint!  I didn't realize that Wyoming is the least populated state per mile in the entire USA.  If it weren't for cold, snowy winters I would totally pack my things and move there.  It's so fresh and peaceful.  

Just crossing the border from South Dakota into Wyoming you notice a change in the landscape.  There are mountains that begin to rise up and the number of trees on the hillsides increased immeasurably.  

We had an incredibly beautiful afternoon to drive across the first half of Wyoming.  

The many trees on the hillsides continued for the many miles we traveled through Wyoming.  The air was clean and crisp and there was almost no humidity.  It was absolutely incredible!

 

Have a look at the photo of the approaching Devil's Tower.  Isn't it a beauty?  Just wait for the up close and personal pictures.

Sunday's Travels Continued from Sioux Falls to Devil's Tower

The landscape, changed dramatically after crossing the Missouri River.  The hills and buttes became more prominent.  We passed the Badlands which are beautiful but weren't able to get photos from the interstate.  Unfortunately, this trip didn't allow time to drive through that extraordinary area.  South Dakota is certainly a scenic state with lots to offer.  And it's family friendly.  

As we traveled across I-90 heading west, buttes were popping up adding to the scenery.  We saw tons of farmland and bales of hay dotted the fields.

As the skies cleared, we began to see more trees dotting the rocky landscape.   And the further west toward Wyoming we got, the soil began to appear more and more red.  After a rather gloomy cloudy morning, our afternoon was sunny and beautiful.  The sky was incredibly blue, and the landscape was red, green, brown and gray.  Stunning!  We didn't stop much because our goal was to spend time at Devil's Tower in Wyoming mid-afternoon.  Stay tuned for details of our visit.