Close Encounter with Devils Tower

Our campground in Spearfish, South Dakota is less than an hour's drive from Devils Tower in eastern Wyoming, so we decided to drive out to see it today.

Devils Tower is an intrusion of igneous, or volcanic rocks, into sedimentary rocks in the Bear Lodge Mountains (part of the Black Hills as they extend west into Wyoming) near Sundance, Wyoming. Geologists disagree as to the cause of the intrusion or exactly how the tower was left standing above the surrounding land.  The unique ribs that rise vertically on its sides are 4-, 5-, 6- and 7-sided columns that formed as the original lava cooled.

Devils Tower rises above the Belle Fourche River, is 1,267 feet above the surrounding terrain and 5,114 feet above sea level.  Among Native Americans, a variety of myths have been extant about its formation.  The first documented European American visitors were several members of Captain William F. Raynolds' 1859 expedition to Yellowstone. Its name originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Col. Richard Irving Dodge when his interpreter misinterpreted a Native American name to mean "Bad God's Tower."  It was established as the U.S.'s first National Monument in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt.

In recent years, climbing Devils Tower has increased in popularity. The first known ascent of Devils Tower by any method occurred on July 4, 1893, and is accredited to William Rogers and Willard Ripley, local ranchers in the area. Today, hundreds of climbers scale the sheer rock walls of Devils Tower each summer.  The Tower is sacred to several Plains tribes, including the Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa. Because of this, many tribal leaders objected to climbers ascending the monument, considering this to be a desecration. The climbers argued that they had a right to climb the Tower, since it is on federal land. A compromise was eventually reached with a voluntary climbing ban during the month of June when the tribes are conducting ceremonies around the monument.

One novel ascent of Devils Tower was accomplished by a parachutist named George Hopkins who parachuted onto the top of Devils Tower in 1941, only to realize that he had no way to get down.  For six days, planes dropped supplies to him, until a rescue team finally ascended the mountain and brought him down.

Devils Towers was popularized in 1977 by a popular Steven Spielberg movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," starring Richard Dreyfuss and Teri Garr. It tells the story of Roy Neary, an everyday blue collar worker in Indiana, whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO).  He becomes obsessed with an image of Devils Tower and, accompanied by his long-suffering wife, makes an odyssey to Devils Tower to meet aliens who have visited Earth.

We hadn't even thought of visiting this extraordinary place until Kathy woke up one morning and unaccountably sculpted an image of it in her mashed potatoes:

Doing a little Google Image research, she realized that this must be an image of Devils Tower and that, like in the movie, she might meet alien visitors to our planet if she visited the site.  Pulling David along with her, she headed out today toward the monument.

Here was our first view of the monolith as we drove west from Sundance, Wyoming:

Approaching closer, we began to appreciate its magnificence:

Arriving at the visitor center, this was our view of the tower from the west:

We set out on a 5-mile hike around the base of the mountain, hopeful to see it from every angle.  We got the fabulous bonus of seeing some dazzling scenery, too!

Here is a view of Devils Tower from the north --

From the east side of Devils Tower, around to the east side, we could see climbers ascending its faces.  There are dozens of formally-named, alternate climbing routes, and the monolith is a world-class crack-climbing site:

The trail we hiked is called the "Red Beds Trail," because it takes the hiker into brilliant red sandstone beds that lie atop cliffs overlooking the Belle Fourche River (yes, for those of you have followed our blog entries too closely, the same river that runs through Belle Fourche, South Dakota, the geographic center of our nation):

The red sandstone formations were striking from every perspective:

Here is a glimpse of the Belle Fourche River below the red cliffs --

-- and another view of the red cliffs from the river:

We paused for lunch at the park campground, naturally finding a table with a perfect view of the mountain from the southeast:

The campground is graced with a large sculpture, titled, "Circle of Sacred Smoke," which represents the smoke from a Native American pipe. Sculpted by Japanese artist Junkyu Muto, it serves as a reminder of the sacred nature of this place in the cultures of 20 or more tribes of plains Indians.  The mountain is so sacred to Native Americans that, here and there on the height of land at the base of the mountain, you can find colored prayer flags tied to trees, where someone has offered a prayer to the spirits residing in this place.

Here, David and the mountain are framed in the white smoke:

Near the campground, there is also a large prairie dog town, through which the trail winds.  As we walked the trail, we were preceded by alarm barks moving from burrow to burrow like a wave.  The little critters would peer at us, then pop into the burrows for safety.  We did catch a couple photos of the little guys:

Climbing back up to the loop trail around the mountain, we found striking stone formations along the southwestern flank:

Here is another, with the Belle Fourche River and the valley in the background:

Finally, rounding to the west side, we got our last great compass-point view of Devils Tower:

We worked our way back to the visitor center and drove home satisfied with our visit and amazed at the wealth of beauty we had seen - not only the mountain itself but in the trees and geology around it. We couldn't get enough of Devils Tower.  If you can't either, here is a link to all our photos from the trip.