Badlands and The American MidWest-Spearfish and Devils Tower

This blog covers the last 2 days in the Black Hills area. Spearfish Canyon is on the western end of the Black Hills National Forest. It is a winding road that follows Spearfish Creek and ends at 2 waterfalls with short trails. Because the trails are also at a restaurant/lodge they are very busy places. Spearfish Falls is a beautiful waterfall that has many water streams falling over it's edge.

Roughlock Falls was on a longer trail, maybe 1.5 kms one way. Again, there were a lot of people on the trail so it was not surprising that wildlife was elusive. The falls themselves were very interesting but rather hard to see in a picture. The main part of the falls is off to the left but under much of the moss to the right water runs down and through into the rushing river below.

We had lunch at a picnic spot (one of the only ones) called Long Valley.

There were several places to fish where the fish were easily seen because the river was so clear.

For such a well traveled scenic route, there were very few pull out, trails, parking or route markings. Instead of taking the same way back to our campsite, we followed the canyon route out and around a circle which took us about an hour to return to our trailer. Not many people went his far and so we lost the crowds. We stopped at this historic store in Cheyenne Crossing. It was the last stop in the historical stage coach route from 1877 - 1887. You can imagine the likes of the Sundance kid planning to intercept these stage coaches and rob them.

The next morning we set out into Wyoming to visit the Devils Tower Monument. This place was amazing to visit. You can see the tower from the road a long way away.

There is a visitors centre with a gift shop at the base and that's where the trails start as well. We hiked the Tower Trail which is the shortest but offers the closest view of the tower. It is a very well groomed trail (all paved) despite there being a storm 2 weeks ago that brought many trees down.

There were many climbers on the tower today. We counted 5 groups. It is hard to communicate the scale of the tower. It is 867 feet in height but it is also not entirely uncovered. This uncovering of the rare igneous rock called Phonolite Porphyry, and the creation of the boulder field which is 13 acres, happened many thousands of years ago. If you look closely you may recognize the climber in white!

The trail takes you right through the boulders and in and out of the forest.

The tower looks different at every angle.

The park does en excellent job at telling the story of the tower, both the factual, geological story and the tales that have been a part of the First Nations stories for time immemorial.

It is still a ceremonial place for many American Natives Peoples who come to tie prayer ribbons in the trees.

Our campsite is about a half an hour away and is very quiet and well taken care of. Mountain View campground in Sundance, WY is a place we would recommend.

This evening we were delighted by an old fashioned Sip'n'Walk that the town of Sundance runs every Tuesday and Wednesday in June and July. We were met outside the Crook County Courthouse by several story tellers in authentic costumes. There we are offered Sarsaparilla, Lemonade, Wine or Beer to drink in tin cups as we were led around town by our guide. We met the likes of Calamity Jane, Sheriff Ryan, a school teacher and, of course, the Sundance Kid who all told us their stories and the stories of the town of Sundance.

The town has been building an historical presence in the area and have restored the school house and have created a square for sharing the history of the Sundance Kid complete with a statue of him in their jail. He spent 18 months in their jail and slipped away from them at least 3 times!