Bowling Around Beautiful...Devils Tower and Deadwood

Friday, March 18, 2016

Bowling around beautiful...Devil's Tower and Deadwood

On Friday, George and I went down to lunch at 7 am to the lounge in the Days Inn at 725 Jackson Blvd. This lounge/lobby area was apparently remodeled a few months ago - it's actually pretty small. There's the check-in counter, and divided by a low partition, the lounge with about ten tables, 5 running along the partition wall, the other 5 along the outer wall...  (There are no chairs for people to just sit in in a "central lounge" and there's a big screen TV located in the ceiling corner of the breakfast nook.)

In one corner as you enter the lobby are the two brochure racks. Head toward the lounge (more appropriately just a breakfast nook!) and there is a cart with a variety of coffee urns on it.

On the counter by the wall are the breakfast things. Cereal, milk, fruit, and a mixture for one hot breakfast meal. On this occasion, there was a container of waffle mix and a waffle maker. My friend and I had waffles, with butter cups and packages of maple syrup.

We then headed out to Devils Tower (note that "Devils" is plural, not possessive), which is an hour and a half away from Rapid City on I-90 to US-14 (depending on how fast you drive. It's 110 miles).

It was a cloudy day, and as we got into Wyoming there was a bit of fog (or just low-lying clouds as we were heading up into the mountains).

It was actually a fun drive, as the closer we got, the more we peered into the fog to try to see Devils Tower.

In the center of the photo is Devil's Tower obscured by fog or clouds...

George said that we were going to see Devils Tower if we had to go right up to it and touch it in order to do so.

However, the closer we got, the more we could see of it, and once we got to the Devils Tower visitor center it was revealed in all its glory.


It cost money for normal people to get into the grounds of the Devils Tower National Monument. However, my friend George is retired military and disabled, and a senior citizen, so he got into the park for free. (The pass is just for his vehicle, however).

Entrance to Devils Tower National Monument

George actually preferred it like this - he said seeing it through the fog made it look more mysterious, and since we could only see it when it was actually full size, when we were so close to it, rather than seeing it "small" and growing larger as we got closer, was more dramatic. I could not help but agree.

Snow flakes falling as we get closer to Devil's Tower.

Devils Tower and the debris field, hundreds of gigantic boulders that have fallen from the tower

The grooves in the basalt Devils Tower

The visitor's center is divided into two parts - the gift shop and an educational section.

Explaining how Devils Tower was formed

 I went into the gift shop and discovered that a new collectible for National Parks and Monuments throughout the United States are tokens (as opposed to pressed pennies - which I also collect.) So I started a new collection and bought the little booklet into which you store your tokens.

Front and back covers of the token album specifically for national parks, monuments and memorials

Tokens from Devils Tower and the Badlands

The token album opens up as a trifold, with slots for 30 tokens.

After warming up in the Devils Tower visitor center we walked up the path and halfway around the Devils Tower, marveling at it, and the debris field with its giant boulders, all the way. But it was cold and windy, and we decided we'd seen enough on that particular day!

On the return to Rapid City, we went via Deadwood.

It started to snow as we arrived in this city, nestled against the mountains:

Entering Deadwood

The road into Deadwood is steeper than you might expect so be careful of that during winter time or when it's raining heavily.

Lots of historic buildings, but the first thing you see is actually Cadillac Jacks - a casino.

Cadillac Jacks Resort and Casino

George and I went in there and played blackjack for about an hour. After losing half our stake (even though we played "correctly" - George used to be a blackjack dealer) we cashed in and went to lunch at another casino, the Tin Lizzie.

Cadillac Jacks had two live roulette tables, five live blackjack tables, and a hundred or more slot machines.

It was just too cold and windy to stroll around the city checking out all the historical buildings, so after lunch, we drove back to Rapid City, ate dinner at the Burger King adjacent to Days Inn, bought a couple of ice creams in waffle cones from the adjacent Coldstone Creamery (I got a scoop of chocolate and one of pistachio - though they don't call them scoops, very confusing, and the pistachio was awful, tasted minty so I'm wondering if they just gave me the wrong kind of ice cream.)

We spent the rest of the evening in our room.