Magnificent Geology and History Out West

If each picture is worth a thousand words, then I'll save having to write 180,000 words about the past glorious week!  Link to this leg of the journey, plus captions:  click here (the links are permanently on the main blog page, too).

I would like to share a Devil's Tower legend of the Kiowa natives:  "Eight children were at play,
seven sisters and their brother.  Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet.  His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear after them. They came to the stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper."

I like that story a tad bit more than the geological one. 50 million years ago, magma solidified under the ground.  Since then, and the landscape around it has eroded.  See what I mean?