Devil’s Tower

Devil’s Tower is this hunk of hard rock sticking up from the Wyoming plains.  We were here in 2006 for a quick (1 hour) visit.  This time we wanted to do it justice.

First, we were able to get into the campground within the National Park.  With Jim’s National Park Golden Pass, we got in the park for free and paid half price for the campsite.  $10 a night? For three nights?  I’ll take that…especially after the pricey (but worth it) RV Resort in the Black Hills.

We loved this campground.  How often do you get to camp with a view like this?

A campsite with a view!

 It was dry camping, but we are more than able to handle camping without any hookups.  The solar panels performed well. We only kicked on the generator one evening for an hour just to run the air conditioners to cool off. It was…again…HOT!

The Belle Fourche River, right outside our RV door.  Every morning we would see deer out in this field.

We set out early one morning to hike around the Tower.  We did the whole loop around the base of the Tower.

Ponderosa Pines are the predominant trees in this area.

Up close and personal with Devil’s Tower. Well, closer than we were at the campground. You can’t see them, but everyday there were rock climbers scaling Devil’s Tower and then repelling back down.

There was an interesting sculpture at the entrance to the campground.  It is called The Circle of Sacred Smoke.  Done by Japanese artist Junkyu Muto, it is one of three sculptures of his International Peace Project.  The other two are at the Vatican City, Rome and Bodh Gaya, India, where Buddha reached enlightenment.  Native Americans consider Devil’s Tower sacred and the puff of smoke represents smoke from a ceremonial pipe.

The Circle of Sacred Smoke

If you recall from a previous blog post, the water valve on our toilet decided to leak, leak, leak.  Fortunately, there was a shutoff valve to stop the water flow.  But to flush, we have been pouring water down the toilet from a cup.  Well, we are now in Gillette, Wyoming and VIOLA!  We have a new toilet.  We found a wonderful mobile RV tech who ordered the toilet late last week and came out and installed it today.  It’s nice to be able to flush again!  And he only dropped one part down into the stinky black tank…where it still resides (emergency trip to Home Depot for a replacement part was made).

This is one happy camper!  And Happy Camper just happens to be the name of the chemicals we put in the toilet to keep it from stinking!!!  Coincidence?  I think not!

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