Devils Tower National Monument

Devils Tower at sunrise, surrounded by Ponderosa Pine forest.
Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming.

President Theodore Roosevelt declared Devils Tower to be the first National Monument in the United States on September 24, 1906. Interestingly enough, this was ten years before the National Park Service was established.

The 867-foot tall Devils Tower is composed of huge columns of an igneous rock called phonolite porphyry, in a formation known as columnar jointing. The columns are mostly hexagonal in cross-section and each is about six feet in diameter. The shapes are remarkably similar to the columns at Devils Postpile National Monument in California and Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. Geologists are unsure exactly how the tower was formed.

Northern Plains tribes of Native Americans, including the Kiowa, Lakota, Sioux, and Cheyenne, consider the tower to be sacred. Several native legends about the site involve a giant bear and refer to the tower with names that translate to Bear’s House, Bear’s Lodge, and simlar terms.

The name Devils Tower was given to the massive rock formation during an Office of Indian Affairs survey in 1875. The National Park Service website acknowledges that the survey party’s official interpreter may have mis-interpreted the native name as “Bad God’s Tower”.

The National Monument features a campground, visitor center, and five trails around the tower. Rock climbing the columns is a popular activity. Just outside the park, visitor amenities include stores, restaurants, and a conveniently located KOA Campground.

In early June, I enjoyed a peaceful, solo hike at sunrise on the Joyner Ridge Trail, a 1.5 mile loop on the north boundary of the park. There are several vantage points for photos of the tower on this trail. At the time of my visit, the rising sun cast beautiful edge-light on the huge tower and surrounding ponderosa pine forest. The sounds of birds and the breeze blowing through the pines, plus the sight of a white-tailed deer bounding across a meadow made for an truly wonderful morning. It was easy for me to see why this place so amazed early Anglo explorers and why it remains a sacred place to Native Americans.

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