Woke up in camp and headed for Devil's Tower. Great, Great, GREAT! We walked the Tower Trail which is 1.3 miles. Stunning views to be had no matter where you stood! I love geology that makes me THINK and ASK and WONDER. The columns on this thing are either 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 sided, but MOST of them are SIX sided. The boulders around the bottom are the pieces of column that eroded and broke off--you can see some straight-ish edges in the boulder field. No one in "modern" times has ever witnessed any rockfall. Notice the rock climber in the next pic--867 feet tall, this thing! It HAS been free climbed as well!!! The columns are the largest in the entire world, as big as 60 feet long and 20 feet wide! Biggest in the world, right there in Wyomin'! Also, had to include the rabbit and the prairie dog!
From Devil's Tower, we headed to South Dakota to check out Jewel Cave National Monument. Yes, we are National Park Service junkies. K parked and ran to the ticket kiosk to stand in line. By the time I arrived, he was headed toward me across the parking lot with a dejected look complaining that all the "good" tours were sold out and all that was left were the twenty minute Discovery Tours. I said, "We're HERE! We may never come back. Get in line for the twenty minute tour, even if it's all they have!" So we stood in line and I heard the ranger tell the man ahead of us that seven tickets came back for the Scenic Tour. The man purchased five of the seven. K almost didn't dare hope that this could be true, so he gingerly asked if there could possibly be two left for the Scenic Tour and of course, there were! Oh, the joy! Whenever stuff like this happens to K, I always think it's because Heavenly Father knows K's rock loving, cave-minded, appreciation for all geologic wonders spirit. I try to point this out to him and he says, "No, it's because Heavenly Father loves you the most." Whatever. Jewel is the second longest cave in the world after Mammoth and it was amazing!
Where did we go from there? To another cave, of course! We headed for Wind Cave National Park and got on the last Natural Entrance Tour of the day. Holy Box Work. Box Work is this cool formation and 95% of all cave box work found in caves today is found in Wind Cave. That's ninety-five percent of all cave box work in the WORLD, people. Very cool. And Wind is the fifth longest cave in the world! All this in South Dakota!
Our wildlife list today included: rabbit, antelope, prairie dogs, wild turkeys, deer, and bison!
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