Devils Tower National Monument

After leaving Helena, our destination was Rapid City, South Dakota, to visit Mt. Rushmore. We planned to take two days to get there, as the mileage was a little long for a one day haul. On the second day, we only had a 4-hour trip on the schedule, so we decided to alter our route slightly and incorporate a trip to The Devils Tower National Monument, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, standing 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, 5,112 feet above sea level, and 867 feet from its base to the summit.

Devils Tower is made up of igneous rock, which is made directly from molten rock coming to the surface. Devil's Tower was a spire of molten rock that forced its way from deep inside the earth through the surface, or near to the surface. As time wore on, the sedimentary rock that surrounded the tower eroded, leaving Devil's Tower exposed. Sedimentary rock is much softer than igneous rock, thus it erodes faster. Devil's Tower was left standing tall when everything else had been blown or shifted away from it.

You may recognize the shape of Devils Tower from the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where the top of the tower was featured as the landing pad for the aliens. The monument is located in a 1347 acre park featuring more than seven miles of hiking trails and is home to birds such as hawks, eagles, vultures, falcons and mammals such as white-tailed deer and the black-tailed prairie dog. More than 5000 climbers from all over the world climb the tower every year.

Devils Tower is a sacred site of worship for many American Indians and is known as Mato Tipila by the Lakota, which means "Bear Lodge". As Dan and I walked the 1.3 mile trail that skirts around the tower, we saw many prayer bundles tied to the surrounding trees. There were instructions at the beginning of the trail asking hikers not to disturb the prayer bundles as they are considered physical symbolic representation of prayers and are part of religious ceremonies. It's easy to understand how this could be a holy place. I was filled with respect for this massive monolith, and was struck with awe and wonder just standing in the presence of something so wondrous and mysterious.