ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION EXPEDITION!!!! Day #2

ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION EXPEDITION!!!!

Day #2

The Boys had us up for a 0400 walk as they needed to patrol the campground. After a couple more hours of sleep we did get up at 0600, another pup walk and put the coffee on. I did get some sunrise pictures and played with some editing features with the iPhone. 

Todays breakfast was waffles and fresh peach slices. Pretty darn good. 

The Keyhole Reservoir is named for the Keyhole Livestock Brand which belonged to the McKean brothers who had a cattle operation in this area. There is an earthen dam which was completed in 1952 and built by Bureau of Reclamation. Nice forested campgrounds, offering water sports and year round fishing. 

After cleaning up from breakfast, we loaded The Boys and a picnic lunch and headed out to Devils Tower National Monument. Devils Tower was simply formed as a magma plug, cooled and then the surrounding sedimentary rock around the plug eroded leaving the tower. The tower is 867 feet tall at 5,112 feet above sea level and the top has an area of about 1.5 acres. Yes, there is a colony of prairie dogs on top of the tower. I  climbed it back when I was a Ranger in GTNP. 

The  Native American legend says there were eight sibling children playing, one boy and seven girls. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb and began running on all fours, he soon became covered with fur and had grown claws. His sisters became afraid and ran with the bear chasing them. The girls took refuge upon a tree stump who told them to climb on top. When they were on top pf the stump it began to grow skyward. The bear reared up and scratched the tree scoring the bark. The seven sister were borne into the sky and became the stars of the Pleiades. 

The tower was named Devils Tower by Col. Richard Dodge in 1875 when leading an expedition to the Black Hills to confirm reports of the discovery of gold.  It was in 1906 President Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the first national monument. His actions made Wyoming the home of the First National Park and the First National Monument. Gotta love Wyoming. 

Before we arrived at the monument there was a roadside shop with a their sign inviting folks to stop here and eat so we both won’t go hungry. Could not resist as I thought that was well played. We did buy a jar of Choke Cherry jelly.  

We drove around the monuments roads stopping to take pictures at various turnouts and finally stopped at the Visitors Center and The Boys got to walkabout the parking lot and have people admire them. They are magnets for attention and eat up people fawning over them. At the VC (Park Service talk for the visitors center), we decided to start the Nation Parks Stamp collecting, we are starting with a small book and will see how it goes, could be fun. From the VC, we made our way to the picnic area for the  picnic lunch we had packed. It was a very nice picnic area, with shaded picnic tables, running water, and clean restroom.  We then toured the parks campground and chatted with the Host. He stated the campground rarely fills and if one is there by 1900 they can find a space. The campground is first come first serve and all sites are pull through and all sites are dry camping. The sites are mostly shaded and the bathrooms are great. Could make for a nice passing through stay. There is also a KOA at the entrance of the monument. Our thought is summers can get rather warm up here and the AC of the camper is a plus, so therefore the need for electric hook ups. 

Our next stop was the prairie dog village, these guys are tame and will come right up to you. There are ample signage telling people not to feed these guys. It seems prairie dogs like to bite and can not tell food from fingers. Why in the world I took pictures of them is beyond me, as back home I just need to walk out the front door. 

We then left the area and drove back to our campsite at Keyhole Reservoir. The Boys crashed during the whole drive and even back at the camper. We enjoyed sitting outside in a nice cool breeze catching up on our writing and editing photos. I also set up the camp kitchen in preparation for the evening meal of Can Cooker Stew. 

For the Can Cooker Stew I used potatoes, carrots, onion, celery and cubed top round, all seasoned with pepper, garlic, and Hawaiian Season Salt. I used the Can Cooker gates inside the cooker, this makes for easier clean up aa ones ingredients are lifted off the bottom of the cooker and won't stick. Toss the stuff in, 12 oz or more of liquid, close the lid, put on heat source, when steam starts to roll out the hole in the lid, reduce the heat so there is a jet of steam coming out the release hole, let cook 30-45 min, turn off heat and let sit 5 min. Your done and it is time to enjoy a nice meal. I did thicken the cooking juice with some flower to make a gravy. The Hawaiian season salt gave it a nice kick of spice. 

We made our final pup walk as the sunset, this evening we observed some Pronghorn Antelope  and some geese. The Boys enjoyed the walk and were ready to call it a day, for us it was shower time. 

Tomorrow we head to an iconic Road Side Attraction.  WALL DRUG m gonna get some free ice water !!!!!!