S Dakota & Wyoming - Crazy Horse - devils tower

The sign tells the story of Devils Tower but not the Indian legend. Some small Indian girls were playing a game nearby when a bear chased them. They climbed on the 3 ft rock and begged the rock to save them. It started growing and the marks you see on the tower are the bear clawing after them as it raised to 1267 feet above the Belle Fourche River.
The tower from a distance. It is very impressive.
The Native People consider this a sacred place and come here to pray leaving prayer clothes tied to the trees as show in the second photo bleow.

This is a view from of the valley from as high up as we could go without doing an actual rock climb. Which in one of the photos below it appears Bill is attempting. I of course have to remain to take the photos--lucky me.
Another shot of the whole Tower.
This one needs to be double clicked to see the people that are actually doing the climbing. They are about a fourth the way up.
This is some climbers on the backside that are almost at the top of the tower. When they actually made the top they were around the corner and we could no longer see them. It is about the size of a football field sort of rounded at the top, not totally flat.
Here you can see some folks about half way up. They are not the ones who made it all the way up. There were about 8 to 10 climbers. Annually there are about 4 to 5,000 climbers.
Here Bill is attempting his climb. He did not get to much further and it was time to go.
This is the statue of Crazy Horse not to far form Mt Rushmore. Internet info=

Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear officially started Crazy Horse Memorial June 3, 1948. The Memorials mission is to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of North American Indians. The memorial consists of the mountain carving, the Indian Museum of North America, and the Native American Cultural center. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain on land considered sacred by some Native Americans. The sculpture's final dimensions will be 641 f t wide & 563 f t high. By comparison, the heads of Mt. Rushmore are 60 ft high; the head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet high. The hole is the start of the underside of the arm as seen in the sculpture below.

This shows both the sculpture left by Korczak and the mountain being carved. His family is carrying on the completion of the work. This is all being done by private donations.
The bronze sculpture in the museum is in the foreground.
This is a shot of the mountain between the statues arm and the horse. This symbolizes Crazy Horse saying"My lands are where my dead lie buried." The feather on top his head will be added when the rest of the carving is done. Want more info - go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial