2017 Western Trip Day 5

It was up bright and early for us today. We planned to walk all the rest of the trails around Devils Tower. We went into the little town of Hulett, WY. A great little tourist town with a little western feel main street. We found the perfect Cafe for breakfast, the Hitchin Post,  and had a big eggs, sausage, pancake meal.

After breakfast it was off to the park again. We planned to do the whole circuit around Devils Tower. Starting at the trail head for the Joyner Trail we would then pick up the Red Beds Trail and follow that around the Tower to the visitors center and then continue around to meet our original trail for just a bit and then take the (loop) trail back to the car. 

 

A total of just 5.5 miles. It was a beautiful day to walk. Blue sky and nice temperature. Just relaxing on the trail

Pretty flowers were in the grass

You get some great views from the distance and the views change all day as you circumnavigate the Tower.

The first part of the walk (and the end) is in open prairie and tall grass.

We were early in the morning before any crowds made it to the park, so we saw lots of wildlife. A large group of Turkey in the underbrush.

another angle on the Tower

As we came around the east side of the Tower and looked down toward the entrance we could see it is another busy day and a really long line of cars waiting to go through the entrance gate.

(zoomed in a bit)

The east side of the Tower is made up of very red rock, reminded me of hiking in Utah.

Vicky on the trail 

The lovely Belle Fourche River runs right past the Tower and the trail

Yet another view

Coming around to the south side you get a nice view of the country side again. I thought the balancing rock made for a nice shot.

looking south east with the Belle Fourche River on the left 

Back on the trail with a couple of signs, although the trail is well established with so many visitors, but the outer loop that we were walking today gets much less traffic. We only saw about 8 people on the outer trail all day and all of those were up near the visitors center.

The odd shape of the Tower you see from the North side 

We did see a trail runner, a young man working for the park out on the trail to talk to visitors and probably to check on their well being and talk about LNT (leave no trace ethic). He was very nice and we actually ran across him twice as he was going the opposite way as us, so we passed each other twice on the whole loop.

Getting back away from the upper sections you get wider views 

Back into the woods we found a groups of deer with young fawns

Don't mind me, I am just going to take your picture and then move on.

A surprising uphill in a day of just walking flat ground

Unusual rock formations found in the woods 

Back on the prairie and tall grass 

almost done walking for the day. 

After the hike it was off a bit to souvenir shop at the Devil's Tower Trading Post and then across to the KOA gift shop. Also negating any positive effect the exercise had by enjoying a lot of ice cream

It was then back to the Gulch Bar for a beer or two and asking for recommendations for dinner.

The Ponderosa Cafe back in Hulett was the overwhelming recommendation. So we returned to the our lodge to get a bit cleaned up and then headed into town again for a very nice dinner (they had the same beer I had discovered at the Gulch!) and then we wondered around town looking at the shops and walking off dinner and more ice cream.

It was back to the Hitchin Post Cafe the next morning for breakfast and a great ending to our trip to Devils Tower as we saw it the headed for Rapid City, SD.