Day 7 - Devil's Tower MT and Geographic Center of the US

I'll just start off by saying - I cannot wait until you see the pictures. I had no idea what to expect at the Devil's Tower.

We started out going west on the interstate and then got off at the little town of Sundance, MT. After driving for quite a way, we crested a hill and there it was. Rising out of the plains of Montana is a monolith of stone called the Devil's Tower. We stopped and I took a couple of pictures (one of the cycle people who had just gotten their picture taken with the Devil's Tower in the background. Nothing prepares you for this thing. There are buttes that you see off to the north west of the Tower, but it stands alone in its grandeur.

The closer we got to the Devil's Tower, the more impressive it got. It looks like a huge backhoe scraped the sides off a mountain and left it with huge grooves up the side. When you are farther away, the grooves appear to be equally sized. However, as you get closer, you see that some of larger than others. And, they go straight up. And, people climb the thing!!!! There are some pictures in the slide show of people climbing, but I don't know that you will be able to see them - as they are just like little dots in the photographs - and not much bigger in person.

Devil's Tower is a National Park, so Jimmy shows his Golden Age Pass and in we go. The first site we come to is the park's prairie dog field. On both sides of the road, you see prairie dogs sitting up on top of their little houses (tunnel entrances). Some are just standing there and some are barking at the people who they consider a potential threat. Every few feet are signs telling you not to pet or feed the prairie dogs. Apparently people food makes them sick and they carry fleas that cause the plague. So, we neither fed nor petted them - but we did stand and watch them for a long time.

Once we tired of watching the prairie dog antics, we completed the drive up to the base on Devil's Tower. A ranger was giving a lecture on the falcons who nest on the side of the monolith. When we walked around the base of the tower (no, we did not attempt the climb), we could hear the falcons crying and see them soaring. Of course, they do not show up well in pictures.

We did make the entire 1.3 mile walk around the base. The pictures in the following slide show are taken at various points around the base. It was quite a strenuous walk (lots of uphill), but the path is paved. And, for every uphill - there is a downhill. I believe that we will both sleep well this evening!!!!



After we left the Devil's Tower, we headed east to Belle Fourche. While on the highway, we came upon two cattle drives. How cool can you get!!! Both cattle drives had cowboys on horses actually herding the cattle. One had an ATV - but that doesn't count. They were real cattle drives. Both were right in the hearts of towns. However, the second one was in the big city of Aladdin - population 15. There were more cows than there were people. There was a 110 year old general store. There were a lot of motorcycles stopped at the general store.



By the way, there are more motorcycles out here than I have ever seen. Apparently, in August, there is a huge motorcycle rally in Sturgis, SD. But, if there are more here then than there are now, there won't be any room for anyone else!!!

Our ultimate destination after leaving the Devil's Tower was Belle Fourche. Marked on the map about 21 miles north of the town is the geographical center of the United States. So, north on highway 85 we go, passing the Geographical Center Tourist Information Center. When we reached the road that runs east right at the point on the map, we turned right looking for the marker. Guess what, the actual geographical center is where we were, but the marker is back in Belle Fourche. So, we turned around and headed back to town to the Dairy Queen where we celebrated the fact that we were at the actual point.

Tomorrow we leave for Billings, MT. I believe most of our trip will take us across an Indian reservation. But, more in the blog on that tomorrow.