Devil's Tower - you remember that - from Close Encounters of the Third Kind - hehe. It is spectacular - a huge formation rising out of the prairie. It is a sacred place to many of the Indian Tribes in the area with several magical stories of how it was formed. Their name for it is "Bear Lodge", which we have chosen to call it. We have to admit that we were saddened to read that this sacred place was " renamed" Devil's Tower by some Cavalry soldier. How's that for disrespect. But I digress. We did a hike around Bear Lodge and it is most impressive. We will attach pictures, but they just don't seem to do it justice. As you hike around it you see many prayer clothes hung on the trees from those who still revere this as sacred ground. It is all very humbling.
Later that day we drove to "The Badlands", and they were amazing. Even the 114 degree heat couldn't dampen our enthusiasm. They are like a scaled down version of the Grand Canyon and you can walk and climb all through them - like a great maze. You may remember that this is a place that the western "bad guys" went to hide when "The Law" was after them. You could get lost in here forever and just die of dehydration. However, they are incredibly beautiful. We camped in a state site that evening right in the middle of that spectacular lanscape. Watching the sun set over these peaks was daunting. And the stars that night - wow!
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