Spirits

Upon waking out every morning I look for the deer. Today we had two by the house, the first spiritual sign of the day. By the time I retrieved my phone, they had jumped the fence.

For me two deer together is a sign from the spirits that our fathers are watching over us. One year, out hiking on fathers day, two deer followed us for a bit. When I stopped and let them know we were doing ok in life they bounded off. I haven’t seen two deers together since then.

We were Wyoming bound, Devils Tower was our destination. We took a scenic drive lasting two hours to get there. We stopped at the Salt Creek Overlook for a few minutes.

We spotted a tower in Newcastle, Wyoming. At think at this point I fell deeply enchanted with Wyoming. Mike had to keep reminding me that this was just a small piece of Wyoming.

The scenery was stunning and I couldn’t stop exclaiming about my new found love.

We entered the Devils Tower territory and once again I was overcome with emotion.

We entered the park entrance with the lovely park ranger providing us with information and a reminder not to pet the prairie dogs, they may carry bubonic plague (didn’t know that and not that I ever would pet them).

We drove up to the parking lot and boom it was there!

We hiked the Tower Trail around it. We went counter clockwise and I’m so happy we made that choice. Honestly I think the spirits of the land made the decision for us. As we ambled closer to the tower a sundog appeared over it.

One of the Indigenous culture’s belief is a sun dog/sun halo is a sign of positive signs and  good omens indicating the presence of benevolent spiritual forces or ancestors watching over the community.

We walked completely around the tower. At one point I stopped and laid my hands on it, feeling the energy of the people that belonged to this land, before it was stolen from them.

I did stop to smell a few ponderosa pines to inhale the vanilla aroma it gives off.

After walking around, we drove .3 miles to Joyner Ridge Trail parking area. We heard (or rather Mike did) that this spot had one of the best unobstructed views of Devils Tower. It truly did. We walked up a little hill and sat on the bench, once again in awe of its majestic presence.

On our way out of the park we stopped at their Prairie Dog Town.

We then headed to the town of Belle Fourche, SD. We discovered a German bakery, Anke’s Bakery so of course we had to go out of our way to procure some goodies. Oh my heavenly goodness. It felt awkward to take a picture, so just picture amazing breads and croissants. If you find yourself in this quaint town stop here.

We decided to lunch at Wild Magnolia Cafe in town. Again a place we encourage you to stop in and eat their delicious food. Plus they have cool merchandise for sale!

We made the plan to take Spearfish Canyon Road as part of our route back. We try to drive as many scenic routes as possible on our trips.

We came home exhausted. Tomorrow we have cave tours planned and to see Mt. Rushmore. We decided to skip Crazy Horse as the Native American Spirits would be mad at us.

I knew today the spirits of the land would watch over us.