Call it Bear Lodge or Devils Tower - Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming [August 21, 2023]

 

The oral traditions of the Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa and Lakota people have similar stories of how the huge monolith known as Devils Tower National Monument was formed.  In the stories, the Tower grew tall to help people escape a bear.  The ridges along the side were made by the bears' giant claws as it tried to climb the tower.  They call it the Bear Lodge or Den.  Col. Richard Dodge named it Devils Tower in 1875 as he led an expedition looking for gold in the Wyoming Black Hills.

 

Through a dirty window - but still

The Tower is a landmark that you can see from a long distance away, rising up out of the prairie.  It was an important landmark for 20 native tribes, as well as white explorers and settlers.  As you drive into the area, it rises majestically in the distance.  It is easy to see how it could be seen as a sacred site.

 

Rock columns

Note how the area around the top is more worn looking

Scientists believe that the Tower was formed about 50 million years ago when hot magma was forced up through sedimentary rock.   As it cooled, it cracked into long multi-sided columns.  The Tower is actually a giant bundle of these columns; the longest and largest natural rock columns in the world.  So, the ridges you see are actually the sides of the individual columns.  Over the years, from forces of weather and the nearby Belle Fourche River, the sedimentary rock eroded.  It is thought that the area around the summit which looks more worn than the rest of the tower was exposed when the glaciers moved through here, beating the stone up a bit more.

 

Impressive and beautiful

The Tower is 867 feet tall.  It’s summit measures 180 x 300 feet.  It was the first National Monument created by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.  It was a significant location in the 1977 movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. 

There is a boulder debris field around part of the base

 

There is limited parking at the Monument, so they have posted signs warning of a one hour wait for a parking space during prime visitation times.  We visited late in the afternoon on a 99 degree day, so there were plenty of parking spaces.  A paved path takes you up to the Tower, and around the base.

 

Camping in the shadow of the Tower

We are camped across the street from the entrance to the Tower in the Devils Tower KOA.  Tonight we will watch the Close Encounters movie in an outdoor venue with the Tower as a backdrop.