I left Deadwood, South Dakota today and headed back to Wyoming.  I loved my stay in Deadwood (named for all the dead trees killed by Mountain Beetles) in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  This area is called Black Hills because the Indians thought they looked black because of them being thick with evergreens.  This is the view outside my window from the park where I was staying.

 

Deadwood became known for its wild and almost lawless reputation.  The town attained further notoriety for the murder of gunman  Wild Bill Hickok and he and Calamity Jane are buried here.
This is the saloon where Wild Bill was murdered.

Deadwood is definitely an example of how the gold mining towns looked back then with saloons and gambling halls everywhere.

Every afternoon, the Lakota Indians entertain on Main Street with their tribal dances and later in the day, there is a gunfight.  It was a pretty fun town with lots of activity and of course I got a little gambling in.   

After leaving SD, I decided to go see Devils Tower.  Devils Tower was declared the first National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. 

There are many theories of how this formation of molten rock came to be.  Most agree it was formed by the intrusion of igneous material but not all agree on how the process took place.  One theory is that it was once a volcano.  It's very interesting to see and the walk up to it and around it was l.3 miles so I got my exercise for the day. 
 

This monument has become a very popular challenge for mountain climbers.  I was able to see 6 climbing today.  It's hard to see them in photo but this shows the surface of the tower from the erosion.

 

These two young men had just finished their climb and you could tell they were so elated that they had mastered it.  Notice all the gear dangling from their straps.  They said it took them 4 hours to climb it and 3 hours to get down.

 

 

Down the road from the Tower was a pull off where you could observe the prairie dogs...lots of them in this field.  It was fun to watch them and now I know why they call them prairie dogs.  They literally bark like little dogs.

 

 

After spending a good part of the day at Devils Tower, I drove to Gillette, WY and settled in for the night.  I'll head to Yellowstone tomorrow and hope I will find a place to stay.

 

When I was at Devils Tower today, a man came up to me and said, "Remember me?  We were neighbors at the RV park in Austin.  I'm the one that was next to you with three children.  It took me awhile, because I meet RVers everyday in the parks, but then I did remember.  What a coincidence that I would run into that family in WY.  They are from Canada and are taking an eleven week vacation.  They have seen 93 National Monuments.  I was impressed.  There are a total of 114 and I've only seen eight.