50th Anniversary Trip - Day 17: South Dakota

We woke up in South Dakota and a beautiful day.  The sky was a deep blue.  It was sunny with only a few wispy clouds
We decided to see Devil's Tower first.

This was our first view of the tower long before we were in the park itself.

Devil's Tower and the surrounding area is very sacred to several Indian tribes.  During a special season of the year, the Indians come to the park and place these prayer cloths on the trees.  These cloths are placed on the trees during their worship ceremonies.    The cloths are a physical, symbolic representation of prayers by the Indians.

 

The walked the one-mile paved pathway around the bottom of the tower.  These pictures show  what we could see from the trail.

A group of five or six deer were in the rocks above the trail.  

This is a rock climber's mecca.  There were at least 20-25 people climbing today.  We spent a lot of time watching them as they ascended the tower..

After the hike we returned to the parking lot and saw this car.  I had to take a picture of this Mercury.  Although, I don't generally like a yellow car, this one looked very nice.

At the entrance to Devil's Tower, there is a Prairie Dog Town.  This little guy seemed to be saying hello to me.

We returned to camp to rest and spend some time with Sandy before taking another short drive through Spearfish Canyon.  On the way to Spearfish Canyon, we drove through Sturgis, Deadwood, and Lead.  Sturgis seems to be a stopping off place for motorcycles even when they aren't having their rally.  Deadwood and Lead were typical western and mining towns.

The rest of the pictures were taken in Spearfish Canyon.  These scenery we saw was much more beautiful then the pictures show.  It was a beautiful drive.

This is Bridal Veil Falls.  It seems every place has a Bridal Veil Falls.  In the spring, the water volume is increased.

Back to camp by 5:00 p.m.  It is nice and cool outside so we sat and relaxed.
It has been a day of seeing so many beautiful sights.
One more day here before we seriously head home.