Devils Tower National Monument

As you can see, we were quite a ways off at this point.  I was wondering about the three (only two visible here) peaks to the west of Devils Tower.

There are quite a few photos in this posting that you will have to click to enlarge for reading.

I'd never seen anything like these.

I couldn't decide whether I liked this or the next photo better so I posted both.

We decided to walk the tower trail.

The boulders go a long ways up.  You needed a climbing permit to go higher.

We saw two people climbing on the tower.  I expect there would have been more but the Park Service asked for a voluntary cessation of climbing in June to respect the believes of the natives as Devils Tower is a sacred site.   

Here you can see both the climbers we saw.  The second is higher and slightly to the right.

Here's a photo from the same location only less zoomed in.  You can still see the climber in blue.

Here you can more clearly see the second climber.

In one area, you could see the trees burned in 2013 when a proscribed burn got out of hand.

Now that's a big rock.

Just thought this dead tree was interesting.
 

This information board along the trail says that the top is rounded and about the size of a football field.  The climbers share the top with mice, woodrats, ants and an occasional snake.

Just a chipmunk crossing the trail.

It's hard to see from this photo but prairie dog holes were everywhere.