Another Wyoming road trip
This past summer I was enjoying my couch in the cabin in Teton Valley when some friends of my humans came to visit and fly their balloon. It was cool, I like people to visit me, I get more attention. Although I did have to give up my couch at night. They told my humans about a chance to fly over a place called Devils Tower National Monument in eastern Wyoming. After the house guests left we packed up and drove all day across Wyoming. It was really late when we got there so we parked our little house and went to bed. (There is a story about my predecessors and our trailer).
We didn’t get to sleep long because we had to go meet all the other balloon people. After a listening to lots of human speech, we drove to an alfalfa field next to this huge rock. Looks like a good place to see an alien space ship; my humans watch lots of sci-fi, it may be rubbing off on me.
Balloon Flight
I don’t get to do much when they are setting up the balloons so I waited in the truck. After all the balloons launched, the fun part of chasing them with the truck starts. It wasn’t a long chase and when Jenny and I found Ernie he was already on the ground in a bigger alfalfa field with a bunch of the other balloons. The best part was I got to run around the field with the other balloon dogs like Bandit and Guinness, while the humans did all the pack up work.
Not a dog friendly park
My humans didn’t know at the time we were there, but Devils Tower National Monument is part of the BARK ranger program. However, I still call it a 1-paw park. Which means that there isn’t much for me to do there. There are no dog friendly trails and I’m only allowed in the parking lot, picnic area and campground. It is all explained on the National Park website.
Geology
Turns out the big, tall rock was formed when magma forced up the sedimentary rocks above it about 50 million years ago. As it cooled it fractured into columns which were later exposed by erosion.
Sacred land
The original humans in the area created different stories to explain the tower. Many of the stories involve a huge bear clawing at it, creating the columns with his claws. It is still a sacred site to the Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, Lakota, and Shoshone who perform tribal ceremonies in the park.
