It happened again – I tried to add pictures from my Dad’s USB stick to my iPhoto album on the MacBook Pro this morning for the blog, and it just shut itself down. I had to do a complete rebuild of my iPhoto library and now all my folders are out of order. At least all my pictures appear to be there. Still not quite sure what’s going on – so anyway, after a long morning of messing with the computer, here’s today’s post… better late – than never, right?
On Day 4 (Thursday) of our FCRV Campvention Rally; we followed through on our plan to visit Devils Tower. It was very windy and still overcast in the morning, so we decided to leave the Harley at the campground and we all piled into my Dad’s Jeep. I chauffeured for the circa 120 mile round-trip.
Here’s our first view of the tower at a pull-off along WY-24…
Click HERE to read about the legend of Devils Tower.
Our first stop was at the Devils Tower Trading Post located just before the entrance to the park.
The Devils Tower Trading Post is chock-full of alien related trinkets and gifts because of the Tower’s association with the 1977 film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind‘.
And we couldn’t help but notice that the Trading Post was already stocked up for the upcoming Black Hills Motorcycle Rally in nearby Sturgis, SD. I guess they aren’t wasting any time to ensure they sell out.
Stilla bought a couple T-shirts.
Then we took advantage of the little snack bar inside the Trading Post and had some hot dogs to keep up our energy for the hike around the tower that we planned to do later.
We drove through the entrance…
I used my Disabled-Veterans Access Pass and got us in for free.
We found a parking spot in front of the visitors center. After a quick tour through the visitors center, we took some water along for our 1.3 mile hike around the monument on the Tower Trail.
The Tower Trail is a nice paved 1.3 mile pathway that circles around the 867′ high monument. There’s another longer, un-paved path named the Red Beds Trail that circles around for almost 3 miles, but we opted for the shorter, closer trail.
The trail had lots of convenient (much appreciated) benches along the route. The weather ended up being quite nice with temperatures in the 70’s and only an occasional gust of wind.
I’m not sure how long it took us to go around the tower, but we were all glad we did. Stilla and I were here 2 or 3 years ago with our little dog “Elvis”, but they don’t allow dogs on the trail and it was too hot to leave him in the car, so we didn’t get to do the trail back then. This time – we left our little dog “Coach” back at the Urban Escape Vehicle with the A/C on. Our kind neighbor Linda, volunteered to let him out to walk a couple times while we were away.
On the route back out of the park, we stopped by the Belle Fourche River Campground to check out the sites for future reference. They were nice – but we only saw a few spots for larger rigs and none had hookups.
This sculpture was near the campground:
My Dad took a picture to emulate the picture in the placard (above):
And of course, we had to stop at “Prairie Dog Town”:
Then we stopped for ice cream at the Devils Tower Trading Post on the way back out…
We also stopped at the grocery store in the small town of Moorcroft on our drive back to the campground in Gillette. We scored some fresh fruit (watermelon, cherries, and bananas) to enjoy later.
Back at the Cam-Plex; Here we are again at yet another impromptu “Happy Hour” between our Coaches…
Later on; Stilla, Kaan, my Dad, and Elaine all went to enjoy some evening entertainment inside the Wyoming Center, but I stayed at the Coach to catch up on some recorded shows and download the pictures we took during the day.
This morning (Friday) I took a break from fixing the computer problems to go to the FCRV Parade (my Dad took lots of pictures). And just now, in the early afternoon, Stilla went over to the Wyoming Center building with Elaine to do some line dancing. Later this evening, there’s closing ceremonies and a Monster Truck Show. So check back tomorrow for a full update and more Urban Escape Vehicle.com adventure…