Aircraft, Ancient Stone Tower, Animals and Aliens

On our way to Devils Tower, WY from Badlands, SD, we made a stop at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum located at Ellsworth Air Force Base. We toured the outdoor exhibit and saw over 30 military aircraft that were on display. Some of the aircraft we saw were the B-1 Stealth Bomber, a B-52 bomber and the B-1B bomber that eventually replaced the B-52, a Minuteman II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), and a Bell H-13 helicopter that was in service during the Korean War and the Vietnam War, a period of about 25 years. Pete enjoyed looking at all of the military aircraft on display and remembering his days in the Navy when he worked on the avionics of Navy aircraft.

(Click to view a larger image)

Devils Tower was just as magnificent as ever. From our campsite, we had an incredible view of it. Unfortunately, we found out that we couldn’t take the full hiking tour around the base of the tower because the park service was doing maintenance on a section of the foot path. We were still able to take in the majesty of the tower and think about the forces of nature that created this geological wonder. While we were on the hiking trail we could see two people climbing one of the columns of the tower. They looked so infinitesimally small against the sheer size of Devils Tower.

(Click to view a larger image) 

On our way back to the campground, we stopped at the Prairie Dog Town in the park. They are so cute!

(Click to view a larger image)

Simon and Rosey enjoyed all of their walks around the campground.

(Click to view a larger image)

One trivial piece of information about this stop on our trip was that the campground where we stayed was the set for scenes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The campground had an outdoor movie theater that shows the movie every evening. There is a plethora of “alien” merchandise in all of the gift shops.

(Click to view a larger image)

We are back on the road and taking a few leisurely days to travel to Seattle, Washington.