Devils Tower National Monument

Devils Tower National Monument, Northeast Wyoming

This is another of those places we said wow, why haven't we been here before. It's about 60 miles from Spearfish SD or Gillette Wyoming so a day trip from either town is no problem. We visited after Labor Day weekend when the crowds were light but even then the parking was a little iffy. We arrived pretty early in the morning and found a place for our camper and trailer but by later in the day it was pretty tight.

This was almost an after thought stop over point on a trip we took to Sturgis, South Dakota and Mount Rushmore. We were sure glad we made the side trip on our way home. If you're in the area and on a budget this one is really worth the stop. For 2012 the NPS will waive all entrance fees on:

Jan 14-16
Apr 21-29
Jun 9
Sep 29
Nov 10-12

Here's a run-down of the fees for all other days, which we think are very reasonable.

1-7 Day Vehicle Pass, $10 Admits a single private vehicle and all passengers.
1-7 Day Motorcycle Pass, Admits 1 Motorcycle and Rider - Passenger is $5 extra so it's the same as 2 people in a car or 40 Ft motorhome?
1-7 Day Individual Pass, Admits one person on foot or bicycle. Passenger same as above.
Individual Permit, if in an Organized Group, $5 per person.
Individuals under 16 are free in all situations (if we understood correctly).

There is a trail all the way around the base that's a little under a 1-1/2 mile hike. It's not difficult for most people and well worth the time. Take some snacks or a picnic lunch and plenty of water, then just mosey on around. You'll get a lot of spectacular views of the "rock" and plenty of photo opps.

There's plenty of debate about how the tower was formed and we're not here to get all "scientific". Suffice it to say it's a big rock sticking out of the ground that's worth seeing. It's NOT an old volcano. The statistics say it's 1267 ft. above the Belle Fourche river (pronounced bell foosh by all the locals we spoke to) and 867 ft. from the base to the top.

Rock climbers come from all over the world for a chance to get to the top. The Park Service seems to encourage this activity but the indians consider this place sacred ground so there's a little difference of opinion. The Park Service actually has a Climbing management Plan which includes a Voluntary Climbing Closure in the month of June out of respect for the American Indian culture. Non climbing tourists are asked to respect this closure by not venturing off the designated base trail. Do some homework on the NPS website if you plan to visit and especially if you want to climb.

There are at least a couple Indian legends of how the name came to be and that's also beyond the scope of this article but they're very interesting and worth doing some homework.

One of the reasons many people visit this attraction, us included, is the chance to see a famous movie location. We closely encountered (ouch) a few people on the trail talking about it.

Some of the pictures below were taken from the road on the way in, the rest from our walk around the base. A couple are just pictures of the forest from the trail and one is a shot taken from the trail overlooking the valley. No ETs were available that day for pics!