Today we stopped to show Olive and Porter Devil's Tower. It is weird how memory works. I could have sworn that last time we were here we walked behind the Visitors Center and I used my telephoto to take photos of climbers. This trip's Visitors' Center was quite small and the Tower was accessed by a winding path. No climbers we could see. I doubt they moved the Visitors Center or the Tower, so it must be memory confabulation.
The Tower is a sacred site to Native Americans and you see reminders in the bright strips of cloth tied to tree branches. I looked for tobacco on the ground left as a gift, but I did not see any.
We have heard a lot about the crowded conditions in National Parks since COVID. Devil's Tower was crowded, but they had a great way of handling it. Rather than requiring passes or simply letting way too many cars prowl the parking lots, they have a stop light on the entrance road that allows cars in at the rate cars leave. We waited in line for about 40 minutes starting at the half-mile marker, but once in it was easy finding a parking place and not overly crowded. When we left cars were lined up to the one mile sign.
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