Devil's Tower, Wyoming

Photos.

 I'd been to Devil's Tower twice before: once, 20 years ago when a sulky teenager was resisting his parents' pressure to see the visitors' center ("ya seen one visitors' center, ya seen them all", and the second time three years ago during a Labor Day weekend visit to the Black Hills. That year, I wasn't feeling well and I sat on a bench, simply taking pictures.

We were within about 20 miles of this national monument in Sundance, so we thought a side trip was in order. We should have been tipped off when it took forever to get through the gate -- only one guy taking money and another walking along past the line of cars telling people the cost ($20, unless you have a National Parks pass, which we do) and handing out Devil's Tower information.

When we finally got through the gate, the ride up the mountain was fine, with wonderful views of the big rock. Once we got to the top, though, we realized the parking lot was not only full, but overflowing. After driving round a couple of times, Bob found a spot on the driveway, off to the side of the road. A grumpy park police officer came by, gave us a lecture on the inadequacies of the National Park Service ("we keep asking for more parking but they won't listen") and told Bob the spot was for RVs only. No RVs parked there -- all illegal parkers? -- but we really had to leave so we decided not to torture ourselves looking for a legal spot.Didn't really matter -- we have seen that visitors' center, after all.

 We stopped on the way down at Prairie Dog Town and Bob used his new binoculars to see climbers on the rocks. We had a nice break out of the vehicle and enjoyed the beautiful scenery all around us.