When laying out our trip plan, I noticed that our route took us close to Devils Tower and we could include a quick visit by heading west into Wyoming via I90 out of Spearfish. We planned to make our stop at Devils Tower and then spend the night in Sundance Wyoming before heading south to Colorado.
Little did I know that this stop would end up being my favorite of the trip!
My knowledge of Devils Tower was pretty much that it was a big rock formation sticking out of the Wyoming plains that was most significant as the setting for the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Based on the movie, I also knew that it looked kind of cool when modeled out of mashed potatoes, especially when the modeling was done by Richard Dreyfuss.
We cruised into Wyoming through the wide flat plains that separated the northern and southern units of the Black Hills National Forest, and turned off the interstate on to US 14 just past Sundance to head north to Devils Tower. The scenery was pretty but not special – rolling hills, generally grass covered with clusters of pine trees.
As we came over the crest of one of those rolling hills, we caught our first glimpse of the Tower.
I had to admit, the tower looked kind of cool sticking up in the middle of nowhere. It was especially interesting because I always thought of it as a butte, yet the rocks weren’t typical of buttes – too columnar. We got back in the truck and kept driving closer.
About three miles out from the park, there was a pull off with a state historical marker that had a bit more of the Devils Tower story.
I found the history of Devils Tower fascinating, especially the volcanic origin of the formation and its age, greater than fifty million years old. Most interesting, though, is that the rock was exposed by wind and water erosion only one or two million years ago. Again, the power of water and wind is astonishing when you consider that the rock formation we admire today was once subsurface.
With this new knowledge of Devils Tower, we continued to the National Monument Visitor Center and Store, getting our first up-close view of the Tower.
I must tell you that I’m a bit old fashioned and I happen to think that the word “awesome” is grossly overused in today’s lexicon. Despite that, there was only one word that came to mind as we stood at the base of this magnificent rock – awesome! This iconic monolith, jutting almost 900 feet above the surrounding plains, has captivated and awed ancestral generations; it’s not difficult to understand how Native Americans came to consider the formation sacred. Devils Tower was named a National Monument in 1906, the first National Monument dedicated under the authority of the Antiquities Act.
One thing that I found interesting is that the park is actually open 24 hours a day, which allows a lot of freedom for taking photos of this magnificent formation under a variety of lighting conditions, including night time.
Even though the park is open 24/7, the Visitor Center and Store has limited daily hours, so we went into the visitor center straight away on our arrival since we got to the park late in the day. We did spend a fair amount of time getting a better understanding of the tower and learning more about it and the hiking options in the park.
Even though it was later in the day, one of the hiking options was a walk around the base of the Tower, about one and a half miles in all. One of the Rangers in the Visitor Center suggested that we’d have more than enough time to follow this trail and he advised it would give us some get views of the tower under the late afternoon light. We set off for the trail.
As we started the trail through the Ponderosa Pines on the northwest side of the Tower, we saw many cloths and bundles tied to the trees. Signs explained that many of these were Native American prayer cloths, representing the sacred and spiritual connection that many tribes have with the Tower, and asking visitors to refrain from touching or disturbing the prayer cloths.
Another treat we had by taking the hike was the chance to get some views of climbers on the Tower. Before we left the Visitor Center, the Ranger had suggested we keep our eyes open for climbers on the Tower. He said there were three to four groups climbing that day and we were likely to see some in action, which we did.
The Park Service states that at least six thousand technical climbers visit Devils Tower annually to use their skills to climb the near vertical walls along almost 220 named climbing routes. The Visitor Center also has a great display on the interest in climbing the Tower and some of the tools and techniques used by climbers. This was all very interesting since we now have a technical climber as a son-in-law; I’d find out later when talking to Dave about our visit that he did in fact climb Devils Tower several years ago.
The hike around the base of the Tower was pleasant and afforded us with some great views, not only of the Tower but also the Belle Fourche River valley west and north of the Tower.
We got back to the truck with the sun just setting to the west. Night fell as we drove back to Sundance to spend the night. The lower clouds on the horizon broke up just a bit to allow a look at the full moon that was rising that evening. The glow of the moon light made me think about what Devils Tower would look like with the moon rising behind it. We just may have to get back here sometime for an extended stay to find out!