Devil's Tower

Our next big stop was Devil's Tower Wyoming. Totally not what I expected. I was picturing a huge rock in the middle of nothingness but instead its a huge rock in a forest. 

The trail around it is paved & shady & really quite pleasant. We saw one man pushing a double stroller full of babies around the tower. (that did not look fun).

Beautiful sky on the way there.

We borrowed an extra boy for this excursion ...

These beautiful shots were taken by my friend Stephanie who backed up, blocked the trail, squatted down & did everything but lay prostrate all in the name of the arts (thanks Steph)

The Native legend about the tower is a giant bear cat creature was clawing his way up to try to eat the people on the top. The stripes on the sides are from it sliding down & clawing all the way. 

Kinda does look like that...

The boys all earned their Junior Ranger badges while we were there.

Working away on their ranger books.

Stephanie was helping Levi with his ranger badge...I'm pretty sure she already earned hers...

One of the activities was to draw a plant...

...how cute are these guys?

Back on the trail.

Now that's a view...

Bear crossing?

Look very carefully & you can see the 2 climbers descending.

Cute cute cute!

Look! Prairie dogs. They look suspiciously like ground squirrels on steroids.

And I have it on good authority that they really enjoy Twizzlers & Cheetos... but I don't know anything about that.

So that was Devil's Tower. We had lots of fun, earned our Junior Ranger badges (some of us anyway) hiked around the base & decided we thoroughly love Wyoming.

Next up: Mt. Rushmore

Blessings.