While nearing the end of our month-long Western states road trip this past summer, Steven and I decided to eliminate our stay in Grand Teton National Park and instead drive east to northeastern Wyoming as he had long wanted to visit Devils Tower National Monument.
These were our first and very magical views of the monument located not far from Gillette.
The Tower began about 50 million years ago when magma or molten rock was injected into layers of sedimentary rock which formed the Tower a mile and a half underground. It has since taken millions of years to erode away the surrounding sedimentary rock to expose the Tower visible today. Geologists agree the Tower is an hardened igneous or magma intrusion but differ on the Tower's original size and shape.
The Belle Fourche River continues to wash away the tower's softer sedimentary rocks, indicating the tower is still emerging. It was interesting to learn that plateaus across the valley, even some higher than the tower's summit, were eroded layers of the same sediment that once surrounded and covered Devil's Tower. Even though the tower still stood at an impressive height of 867 feet at the summit, about 1.5 vertical miles of rock and sediment have washed away since the tower formed.
Archaeological discoveries have shown that the Tower and adjacent Black Hills area of South Dakota have been a gathering place and home for over 10,000 years. As time passed, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, Lakota and Shoshone have all developed spiritual connections with the Tower, handing down their beliefs from one generation to the next.
Devils Tower was comprised of symmetrical columns that were the world's tallest - some more than 600 feet - and widest - 10-20 feet. Along this part of the trail, we could spot columns that lay toppled among the pine trees. As we looked back up at the face of the Tower, it was fun to imagine where the columns might once have stood!
I don't think we've ever waited so long to enter a national monument as we did here. The line was progressing at a snail's pace so I ran ahead to the souvenir store to buy park socks and a t-shirt for our son, Zachary, while Steven inched along.
Thousands of people visit the Tower every year to enjoy nature by walking the trails and looking for wildlife. From the earliest time, the Tower has been a magnet to native people who have seen it as a gathering place, a place of community and a place of refuge. Native Americans still visit as the Tower, aka Bears Tipi, is considered as a sacred place.
I read that ancient rivers took millions of year to excavate Devils Tower with the water carrying away softer sedimentary rock and leaving behind the harder igneous rock called phonolite. The rock, although most commonly found in East Africa, was also present in central Montana as well as here in northeastern Wyoming.
Visitors were restricted to walking below the boulder field unless they had a permit to climb the tower.
Since the late 1800s, ranchers have gathered at the Tower to picnic and camp. The tradition of an Old Settlers' Picnic at Devil's Tower began in 1932.
As we hiked along the Tower Trail which circled its base, it was clear that no two sides of the tower were alike. Walking through the boulder field and then the pine forest, it was interesting to see how the tower's appearance changed. The south side had more eroded columns whereas the north was smoother. The west side had fallen, broken columns which made us wonder if that was the future for the tower?
A view from the Tower looking into the valley:
We learned that the top of the Tower was about the size of a football field and was rounded rather than flat in shape. Those who have ascended the Tower have noted the presence of mice, woodrats and even the odd snake!
If you look really closely or use a vivid imagination, you should be able to spot the climbers as we did once we rounded this side of the Tower!
The Tower has had a long climbing history. In 1893, two local ranchers were the first to climb it, using a wooden stake ladder. The first ascent using ropes and modern techniques didn't come until 44 years later. Unlike many sacred sites around the world, the National Park Service still considers climbing to be "an acceptable recreational use and also recognizes the Tower as a sacred site to many American Indian peoples." However, climbers are asked to refrain from climbing or scrambling in the boulders in June only out of respect for traditional cultural practices because they take place near the summer solstice which is considered a significant spiritual time.
Prayer cloths were used in Native American religious and cultural ceremonies at the Tower.
Fortunately, the trail around the Tower was a one-way loop especially in this era of Covid-19.
We spotted these deer about the halfway point on our hike.
See where a massive chunk of the rock face had tumbled down, almost like it had ben perfectly carved out!
A sign quoted Mother Teresa as saying "how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon, the sun, how they move in silence." What a perfect message for Devils Tower.
The north side of the Tower, well away from the Visitor Center, was far quieter than the others - I guess we were among the minority of visitors who walk around the entire Tower. I could only see that as their loss but we certainly benefitted by how quiet and peaceful it was there.
The Wind Circle sculpture, also called the Sacred Circle of Smoke, was created by Japanese artist Junkyu Muto in special recognition of the Tower as a sacred place. Designed to evoke the image of a puff of smoke from a sacred pipe, it was the third in a series of seven “peace sculptures” planned for significant sites around the world. Two others have already been installed – one at the Vatican in 2000, and the other in 2005 at Buddha Gaya, India, where the Buddha attained enlightenment.
Darlene: I thought of you when we stopped and looked at a signboard about black-tailed prairie dogs who now inhabit just two percent of the area they had 200 years ago where they lived throughout most of the Great Plains. Eradication programs have diminished their range from thousands of square miles to a few scattered ones like this one at Devils Tower. I wonder what type of prairie dogs are all but taking over at Clement Park!
Not sure the sign prohibiting the feeding of prairie dogs was big enough!
Next post: On to the Wild West town of Deadwood, South Dakota!
Posted at long last on Christmas Day, 2020, from Las Vegas aka Sin City! Since Steven and I left our home in Denver a week ago for a swing through the southwestern states I had planned every day to finish this post but we have been so busy playing tourist for me to have the energy or time to even think about finishing this post before tonight. For that, I extend my apologies and my intent to finish writing about our Northwest trip as soon as possible! On today of all days, we sincerely wish you and your loved ones have had a Merry Christmas, will stay safe and connected, and have a healthier and happier new year than 2020 has been.
WoW -- what an amazing geological formation, with such history and sacredness attached to it!
ReplyDeleteLina,
ReplyDeleteI, too, was amazed by the wonderful combination of stark beauty, history and its religious significance to Native Americans. I would have liked to see that climbing was prohibited altogether as it has been at Australia's Ayers Rock out of deference to the indigenous people, however.