Devils Tower National Monument: Of Motorcycles and Prairie Dogs

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.