Devils Tower

Today we are on our way to Devils Tower which is the nations first National Monument. Legend has it that little girls were being chased by a bear and they ran to a low rock and prayed for help. Their prayers were answered when the rock raised up and lifted them upward to safety. The bear clawed at the rock leaving the scratch marks, forming columns, deep in the rock wall. The rock grew so high that the girls were transformed into the constellation known as Pleiades. Here in the visitor center is a painting depicting the Indian legend.

There were rock climbers high up on Devils Tower making their way back down. Look in the center of the picture for the climbers to give you an idea of the size of the monument.

On the way out of the park I had to stop and take a couple of pictures of the prairie dogs.

The town of Hulett looked a real old time Western town and I had to snap a few shots. The red rock just added a little more to the beautiful scenery. We had to stop at Aladdin Tipple. What’s a tipple you ask? Oh I thought you would never ask. Let me tell you. A tipple is used for sorting coal into various sizes for transport by railcar. The coal would be loaded into the top, with gravity and the help of a coalminer with a long pole, the coal would fall through the shoot. In the shoot is a grate that would allow the coal to be sorted into nut, egg, and lump sizes. This is the last remaining coal tipple in the West and the state recently helped shore up the foundation with concrete since the wood was rotting away. When this tipple falls, it will be the end of an era.

From there we had to endure more gorgeous scenery through Wyoming and into South Dakota where we got a campsite in Sturgis. We will be here for a couple of days. As soon as we set up, we had guests.