2015 A to Z Challenge: D is for Devil's Tower

All this month I will be participating in the A to Z challenge.  I will write a post  every day except Sundays.  Twenty-six posts, one for each letter of the alphabet, starting with "A" on April 1.  

Last summer the spouse and I took an extended road trip with our grandchildren in our RV from Oregon to South Dakota and back.  We marveled at Mount Rushmore.

Oh wait, that's the girls at Wall Drug...here's the picture of Mount Rushmore 

We camped in Yellowstone and woke up to snow on the ground (in June!).  This is Hunter playing in the snow in her pajamas and cowboy boots.

 We watched Old Faithful erupt right on schedule.

We outfitted the girls in cowboy boots in Cody, Wyoming.

But, today is the letter D, so I'm compelled to tell you about Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming.  Devil's Tower is our nation's first national monument, established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.  It rises dramatically 1,267 feet above the surrounding terrain in northeastern Wyoming.  We could see it from miles away and it seemed to get taller and taller as we drew closer.

Still miles away we stopped to take pictures.

This is the view from the parking lot.

We hiked up to the base of the monolith and saw these signs posted along the trail.  The monument is a sacred place to the Lakota and other tribes and they pray and worship there.

This picture taken closer to the base of the monolith gives you an idea of the rugged terrain and its size.

Before we visited this national monument all that I knew about it was that it was the mountain from Close Encounters.

We saw no aliens while we were there.