We hit the the road again on Friday and headed back towards Wyoming. The trip ahead takes us clear across the state of Wyoming to Yellowstone but, today we are only going as far as Devils Tower, WY.
I originally though Devils Tower was the name of the national monument but, it turns out the entire town is called Devils Tower. Its a very small town that is home to only 152 people and there isn’t much there except for the massive rock tower that stands at 867 ft.
On our way to Devils Tower we made two stops.
Crazy Horse Mountain is a mountain that is slowly being transformed into a huge statue of an indian leader, called Crazy Horse, that is riding his horse with his arm outstretched pushing his attack forward.
He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by white American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people.
They say that the US promised the indians many things and never lived up to any of them. In the end, all the US did was take their land.
Crazy Horse was killed while in captivity, after surrendering. They say that he was shot while resisting to stay in a Nebraska camp for Native Americans. Many of the natives called his death “murder” and his many battles and win at the battle of “little bighorn” made him a respected and honered leader.
He will be forever immortalized in this mountain.
They are keeping the native american heritage alive at Crazy Horse and we were able to see a traditional healing dance and talk with several people from the Lakota tribe.
We headed out down the road again after a great morning at Crazy Horse and a nice lunch.
Next, we headed down the road about one hour to Jewel Cave.
This is the second largest cave in the world and the park rangers at the park seem to feel that it is probably the largest cave but, because all the chambers are still not discovered they can’t make that claim.
It is currently listed as being 208 miles long so, a full tour is out of the question unless you want to spend a couple of months underground.
Unfortunately for us, all we got to see was pictures because the cave itself was closed due to the coronavirus. Ugh!
We did have a long conversation with three park rangers who were onsite to welcome us, despite the park being closed.
They also showed us a test hole that we would need to fit through if we wanted to see the larger cambers of the cave.
The hole was 8 inches x 24 inches and we all managed to squeeze through it. Even me, can you believe it? I’ve lost about 15 lbs since I left Long Island and I wouldn’t have fit otherwize.
Back into Wyoming
We crossed the boarder back into Wyoming and arrived at Devils Tower around 7pm.
It was a long day and everyone enjoyed the experience.
Luke's Journey Across The USA 