Devil's Tower lLoop ride June 13, 2012

Devil's Tower lLoop ride June 13, 2012, a set on Flickr.

YOU HAVE TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT!
Well, you’ve all heard those words, but out here in the west, it’s true! We haven’t seen Montana’s Big Sky country, yet, but the big views and endless valleys here in Wyoming are just awesome. It was 48 degrees her this morning, snd all the way up to 89 this afternoon. Today we drove out to see Devil’s Tower which was really impressive. It rises up out of the earth to a height of 865 feet. There is a trail that goes completely around it which is just over a mile long. We walked it and even had a picnic lunch as we enjoyed the views. There were two groups of people climbing the tower. I have flown directly over this area before and looked down on the tower. It was really cool to see it from the ground.
The forests here in the Black Hills are mainly Ponderosa Pine with a few other pine species thrown in for good measure. Cottonwoods and Aspen trees are added for variety, but they grown mainly around the creek banks and depressions where rain water runs off of the hills. As we were walking around the trail, we noticed the strong pine scent as the wind blew through the forests. Both of us said that it smelled different than the woods back home. The difference seemed to be that this forest was much more dry that those back east. There was not the smell of black earth or leaves or wetness at all. It was totally different.
After our time at Devils Tower, we drove a circuitous route back to the campground. We enjoyed the BIG country and nearly endless landscapes. The area here is all cattle ranch type land with pasture and hay fields. Several of the hay fields are irrigated with those big sprayers that go around the field. There is a thick layer of iron rich soil (not rich enough to mine) that goes all through the Black Hills. It’s really visible and stands out as red dirt in a lot of our pictures of this area. It helps in making the country beautiful. This really is pretty country. You need to come out and see it for yourselves.