We then headed north on Route 24 towards Devils Tower and stopped at the "Mato Tipila Scenic View" overlook.
I pulled off the road just after the entrance gate and took this photo.
A little farther down the road, there was a Prairie Dog town, which also had Black-billed Magpies and two Bald Eagles perched in a nearby tree.
We drove up to the Devils Tower Visitor Center and parked at the "Red Buds Trailhead". I saw a Western Wood-Pewee and a Red-breasted Nuthatch by the parking lot.
JoAnn went to check out the Visitor Center while I quickly hiked the 1.7-mile Tower Trail, which circles the base of the 867-foot high tower. There was an information board explaining how the tower was formed.
I took photos of it from several spots along the trail.
Birds found along the Tower Trail included a group of Black-capped Chickadees, Violet-green Swallows, the "Orange-shafted" Northern Flicker (a hybrid of the western "Red-shafted" and eastern "Yellow-shafted"), Red-breasted Nuthatch, and a female Bullock's Oriole.
A few White-throated Swifts and Turkey Vultures were seen near the top of the tower along with numbers of Rock Pigeons actually on their natural cliff habitat instead of on city buildings or under a bridge.
We left the monument and headed east on Route 24. I stopped to take one last photo of the tower before starting the long drive back home.
These two photos were taken as we said 'goodbye' to Wyoming at the Wyoming - South Dakota border.
The winds had increased to 50 miles per hour with gusts to 60 as we ticked off the miles on I-90 East. We made it all the way across the state to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where we spent the night.
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