Jul 17, 20233 min read

The One With Taytum's Tower, Timing and Twister

Today, we were trying to beat the rain on our adventure. We were heading to Wyoming to visit Devil's Tower. This is something that Taytum really wanted to do if we ever went to Wyoming. She was pretty excited when we told her we were close enough that we could do it on this trip. We needed to leave by 9am to escape the rain in Wyoming. They were sad that Pua was not allowed to join us for this adventure, but I think he was ok with a day of rest!

When we got there and as we were driving into the park, we stopped to watch the prairie dogs. They are so funny to watch, and they make incredibly loud and silly noises. We stopped at the visitor's center and Taytum and Piper found their twins haha!

Devil's Tower is considered sacred by Northern Plains Indians and indigenous people. It is a climber's paradise! The name is a little misleading though. The legend is that the mountain is not the home of the devil, but a refuge from a bear. The main theory of Devil's Tower is that indigenous people were fleeing from a bear. They saved themselves on a rock and begged the Great Spirit for help. The Great Spirit then caused the rock to grow taller. In its attempts to catch its prey, the bear leaves claw marks on the rock, but it does not reach the people.

We did the almost 2-mile hike around the tower. The girls climbed on some rocks but did not "really" climb anywhere because in 1995 the Devil's Tower National Monument Climbing Management Plan established a voluntary closure for all climbing routes on the Tower every June out of respect for the cultural activities of Native Americans. We got drizzled on a little bit but otherwise the weather was absolutely beautiful while we hiked around.

Taytum scrapped her knee and that apparently meant her leg was going to fall off.

After hiking around the tower, we stopped at the cafe for lunch. Oh my word, the food was amazing. I had fish and chips, Piper had wings, Taytum and Chris had burgers!

We had a shocking moment while eating but I need to rewind to the night before so you understand. So we have been talking that we would like to hit a state each year. We all picked 2 states that we would like to visit and we would draw from a hat to see where we would go next year. While we ate supper at the house the night before, Taytum asked when we were going to pick the state. So that felt like the perfect time. We all put our states on paper and put them in a hat. Chris chose Pennsylvania and Montana. Taytum chose Louisiana and Wyoming. Piper chose Utah and Colorado. I chose Tennessee and Georgia. The rule was no one can get mad if their state wasn't chosen and the one chosen had to do research to find things we should see. I picked a piece of paper and was so excited to tell them which state we are visiting next year. Fast forward to us eating lunch, Chris grabbed ketchup packets and apparently they put the states on them now. So we were all shocked when we looked at them AND IT WAS THE STATE WE ARE VISITING NEXT YEAR....GEORGIA!!!!

After lunch, we did a smidge of shopping. I had to get a coffee mug from Wyoming. They had some pretty funny things in there. The twins wanted to get Pua these cute bandanas! Of course, Chris found a fun beer too!

We headed back to the house and hit rain about halfway back. It was still raining when we got back to the house. So, we decided to take the afternoon to just chill. We watched a movie, played some games, ate supper and got ice cream! Pua even joined in on Twister. Perfect ending after a busy day!