Wildlife at Devils Tower
13 June, 2011 4 comments Leave a comment
On our second and third days at Devils Tower we hiked a total of 8 km on the longer trails, which gave us some new views of the mountain.
John on the Joynes Ridge Trail, Devils Tower.
All we could hear was the wind in the pines and bird song - such a peaceful place.
There were dozens of trees knocked down in yesterday's thunderstorm and several blocked the trail so we had to climb over or go around lots of massive tree trunks.
Large Ponderosa Pines felled by the storm.
We found a shallow cave near the trail, carved by rainwater over the centuries.
John checking out a cave below Devils Tower.
We were lucky to catch a glimpse of the native inhabitants here and there, as these photos show.
Below Devils Tower is a large field called Prairie Dog Town.
Dozens of Prairie Dogs chirped to each other constantly, so the field was very noisy.
Our twin nephews Colin and Cameron tell me this is a mountain bluebird.
Deer in the woods.
This is the view of our campground from the mountain trail.
The river beside the campground obviously was high and running fast.
Belle Fourche River.
We very much enjoyed our few days at Devils Tower and recommend it highly to everyone passing that way. The next day we packed up and headed west a few hours towards the town of Buffalo, Wyoming.
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Thanks Cameron for the info. You and Colin seem to be the experts on birds! Glad you are enjoying the blog.
Thanks for answering my question. Glad you are reading our blog.
Hey guys,
The trip looks amazing. The bird you photographed is a male Mountain Bluebird. The Western bluebird is also very common in Wyoming but it has rust coloured breast feathers.
Hey Uncle John and Aunt Karen! The pictures look amazing. The bird in your last post is a Mountain Bluebird http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=56. It differs from the Eastern Bluebirds we see here in Ontario only slightly on its belly really. The Mountain Bluebird has a blue belly and the Eastern Bluebird would have a rusty brown belly.