We really enjoyed our trip to the NE corner of Wyoming and seeing Bear Lodge Butte which was in the Black Hills. It’s unfortunate that a translation error with natives led to the ignominious naming as Devils Tower. I don’t think God appreciates beautiful parts of His creation being named after the rebellious angel. Consequently, there is a wonderfully easy and paved trail of 1.3 miles that goes all the way around the base that is really worth it for all the views. And on the way to the visitor center is a massive black-tail prairie dog city with tunnels right along the road and they’ll let you walk up within a few feet, but just don’t feed the little guys as some look to be pretty chunky from human processed food. As I watched them they were content to eat the nearby vegetation which is their normal diet. Of note, the spec in the first image below is a C-130 military plane that was circling the monument, and I pondered if it was one of ours based here in Cheyenne.
Devils Tower (also known as Bear Lodge Butte)[8] is a butte, possibly laccolithic, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet (386 m) above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet (264 m) from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet (1,558 m) above sea level.
Devils Tower was the first United States national monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt.[9] The monument’s boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres (545 ha).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower
