Detour to Devil's Tower

We left the Badlands with the truck repaired and feeling confident that nothing else could go wrong, at least for a while.  We headed west towards our next destinations- Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  It was going to take us two days to get there since it was 400 miles away and only half the route was interstate highways. 

We didn’t have Devil’s Tower on our list of stops, but we passed a road sign saying it was nearby so we decided to take a little detour.  The tower definitely looks out of place in that area of Wyoming, which is mostly rolling hills and valleys.   

According to Native American mythology, the Devil’s Tower was formed by the Creator after two boys prayed for his help.  The boys had gotten lost in the forest and were being chased by a grizzly bear.  Just as the bear almost reached the boys, the ground shook and lifted upwards.  The bear scratched at the sides of the rock forming huge tracks and gouges with his claws, but was unable to reach his prey.  And that is how the boys were saved and the rock was formed. 

After we made our way up the mountain road to the visitor center, Kenny and I took a walk on the trail that wraps around the base of the rock.  Because the Native Americans find the landmark sacred, along the trail you can see “prayer scarves” and wind chimes hanging from the surrounding birch trees. 

Kenny couldn’t wait to reenact scenes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the Sony Handycam.  Unfortunately, later that night, his mashed potatoes weren’t dry enough to sculpt a mini replica of the Tower.  He worked at it for a good 10 minutes, but his edible artwork just kept turning into a blob on the plate.  We have a lot of mashed potatoes to eat.