This iconic
monolith rises from the Black Hills and its towering columns have mesmerized
people for thousands of years.
We rolled through
the entrance station at Devils Tower National Monument on a sunny Sunday afternoon
with a thousand Harley Davidsons. It was
the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and we found ourselves sharing our Black
Hills national park experience with more bikers than you can imagine.
I had no
clue what to expect in the Black Hills. I
know it was gold strikes in the 1870s that caused the U.S. Government to
default on its treaty promises that the Black Hills would forever remain Sioux
land. I know there are mountains that
lend themselves to massive sculptures at both Mount Rushmore and Crazy
Horse. And I had heard of the Sturgis
Motorcycle Rally (I just didn’t know when it occurred). But I didn’t know what to expect from the
landscape or the geography. I was pleasantly surprised by the miles of rolling grasslands,
forests of ponderosa pine, herds of bison and picturesque craggy mountain tops
that greeted us as we explored the narrow roadways that climbed up canyons and
ran along ridgetops all through the Black Hills.
My
girlfriend Craig and I started this trip in Abbottsford, British Columbia where
we picked up a new teardrop shaped travel trailer which will be our home on the
road as we pursue visiting all 417 National Park sites. As we worked our way east hiking the Big Hole
National Battlefield in Montana, scoping bison in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley and
envisioning what it was like at the battle of Little Bighorn, the number of motorcycles
we encountered on the highway increased almost exponentially. We had no idea our plans to explore the
national parks of Montana and the Black Hills coincided with the Sturgis rally.
Devils Tower
is on the western edge of the Black Hills and is a bit of an anomaly. There really is nothing else like it. About 50 million years ago, a surge of molten
rock intruded up from the earth’s core into the surrounding sedimentary
rock. It did not break the earth’s crust
which allowed it to cool very slowly and form into the very large columns you
see today. Over the ensuing millions of
years, the surrounding softer sedimentary rock eroded away leaving a giant rock
monolith rising 867 feet above the surrounding landscape. Or at least that’s one theory. Others think it might be actually be an old
volcanic plug.
The Kiowa believe
that a very large bear clawed the columns as he chased seven sisters up a tree stump
that rose up and turned into the rock tower.
The sisters turned into the Pleiades. Regardless of your favorite origin story, what
we see today is a geologic wonder that has mesmerized humans since eyes first
gazed upon the Tower.
Known as
Bear Lodge to the Kiowa, it was named Devils Tower in 1875 by Army Colonel
Richard Dodge when he was in the area trying to confirm reports of gold in
neighboring hills. In his trip report,
Dodge noted that “the Indians call the shaft “Bad God’s Tower,” which he morphed
into Devils Tower.
On July 4, 1893
it was climbed for the first time by two local ranchers using a wooden stake
ladder wedged into the cracks. Remnants
of the ladder have been restored by the Park Service and can be seen today from
the Tower Trail. Since then some 220
routes have been pioneered up the tower’s rock faces and over 5,000 climbers a
year are challenged by these world class routes. Yet in June every year, in deference to the sacredness
of the tower to Native Americans, a voluntary ban on climbing is suggested so
local tribes can ceremonially observe their connection to the tower without the
intrusion of climbers.
We didn’t
climb, but we saw several parties inching their way up as we hiked our way
around the tower on a trail system that we accessed from the campground. The campground is non-reservation and we
easily got a site in early afternoon along the backside of B Loop in an oxbow
of the Belle Fourche River. Towering
cottonwood trees gave us plenty of shade and the site was drive-through so I
didn’t have to embarrass myself by trying to back up my new trailer!
A bit about
the new trailer. It is made in Quebec by
Safari Condo, a small family owned business that makes about six or seven
trailers a week. Not a big operation. The model I got is the Alto 1713. It is 17 feet long with a retractable roof so
it tows as a low profile teardrop, but once in camp the roof raises so you can
stand up in it. It comes with an almost
king sized bed, a toilet, outdoor shower, small table with bench seats, and a
stove, sink and refrigerator. Being tent
campers, we have yet to cook inside preferring to do all the food preparation
outside on our historic two burner stove.
And the toilet we’ve turned into a closet. But the benefits of a fridge cannot be
overstated. Cold beer without draining
the ice chest is a dream!!
With the
Alto set up, we headed towards the tower across what’s known as prairie dog
town, an aptly named piece of real estate filled with barking prairie
dogs. They are very cute and photogenic
and caused quite the jam up along the road – both bikers and cars. Once through the prairie dogs we headed up to
the Red Beds trail, a 2.8 mile loop that takes you to the visitor center and
around the monument back to the campground.
There is also a 1.3 mile paved Tower Trail that starts at the visitor
center and loops around the base of the tower.
This is by far the monument’s most popular walk.
I was glad
we walked to the Tower Trail as the parking lot was crammed with motorcycles. They were very well behaved motorcycles, but
loud nonetheless. Craig and I did the Tower Trail and then completed the larger
Red Beds loop around the monument to get back to the campground in time for
cocktails and sunset.
We have
President Teddy Roosevelt to thank for Devils Tower. It was
the very first use of the Antiquities Act back in 1906, making it the very
first National Monument. Ironic that our
current president likes to compare himself with Roosevelt, yet Trump has a
disdain for the Antiquities Act. If only
he’d figure out the power there is in presidential proclamations creating new
monuments. That seems like something
that would feed his ego.
But back to
Devils Tower. We spent about 24 hours in
the monument, staying one night. That
was plenty of time to hike the trails and see the monument lit by both morning
and evening sun. And it gave us time to
ponder if Teddy Roosevelt would have ridden a Harley.
