The Fox is in the Prairie Dog House - Thursday, June 19, 2020

Today we drove 111 miles from Custer, South Dakota, to Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. The drive was beautiful through the wide-open spaces of Wyoming. We chose to take Hwy. 16 from Custer to Devil's Tower. It was a good choice because we avoided a huge thunderstorm to the north of us. We had a good view of it from the highway.

Welcome to Wyoming sign.

Wyoming ranches.

Wide-open roads.

Heading to South Dakota.

We dodged a big storm to our north.

Our drive was uneventful. When you drive to Devil's Tower, it's hidden from view most of the way there. Then, BOOM!, there it is, in your face. Wow!

Devil's Tower, South Dakota.

It was check-in time at Devil's Tower KOA, so we pulled in. The office is in the long building in front of you when you get there. At check-in, the staff gives you information on the park and activities. We signed up for the hayride tonight.  At 8:00 p.m. every night, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" is played for free on an outdoor screen. We plan to go to it tonight.

KOA's office.

KOA's office, gift shop, and restaurant.

Check-in was done efficiently and we were soon on our way to our site. We had a full hook-up pull-through site with a view of Devil's Tower out of our side window. We had daylight left and decided to do a 4k walk around Prairie Dog Town in Devil's Tower National Monument. 

The Volksmarch started from the Trading Post across the street from KOA. We started the walk from our campsite. We headed across the bridge over the Belle Fourche River and looked for the trail to the left into Prairie Dog Town. It was about 4:45 p.m. 

Walking along the main highway into
Devil's Tower National Monument.

Red Rocks and stormy sky along
the Belle Fourche River.

Here's our trail into
Prairie Dog Town.

Bob ahead on the trail. 

Showy milkweed blooming.

All was calm in Prairie Dog Town when all of a sudden the prairie dogs burst into an alarm chorus of yips and yaps. I turned my head to see what was happening. At the front of a long line of dust was a red fox hunting a prairie dog. He really gave chase but came up empty. 

Frustrated fox; prairie dogs in alert mode

Thunderheads were building up fast over Devil's Tower. I told Bob we had to hurry so we didn't get stuck outside when the lightning hit. 

We walked along the Belle Fourche River.

Keeping an eye on the impending storm.

At the other end of Prairie Dog Town, we stopped to talk to another group of people and asked if they saw the fox. Not only did they see a different fox hunting, but the father also showed us a photo he took of the fox with a prairie dog in its mouth! That was an awesome shot. 

Quite a tasty meal for a fox,
if he can catch it!

So many prairie dogs here!

We finished our Prairie Dog Town portion of the trail and came back to the main road. From there, we hustled back to the campground. We made it back before the rain!

Our hayride was supposed to be at 7:00 p.m. It was raining with some thunder. At 6:40 p.m., I called the KOA office to find out if the hayride would be going tonight. The answer was no. We were able to reschedule our hayride to Friday night at 6:00 p.m.

At 8:00 p.m., the rain stopped so we went to watch "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in their outdoor theater. I brought my umbrella and dressed warmly just in case. Sure enough, about 1-1/2 hours into it, it started to rain. As if that wasn't bad enough, the movie stopped playing and tried to play some kind of fight movie. We don't know what happened, but no one from the park was there to fix it. Strike two for our scheduled activities this evening. We called it a night.

Tomorrow, we will do the 11k (6.8 mile) Volksmarch around Prairie Dog Town and twice around Devil's Tower. 

Good night.