Rising 1267 feet above the surrounding area, Devils Tower is a massive feature that is so striking as soon as it appears through the forest. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt declared Devils Tower the first United States National Monument.
There is a voluntary ban on climbing the tower during the month of June (Not that I would have been brave enough to climb it.) The American Indians have regarded the tower as a sacred site and June is a culturally significant time when many ceremonies traditionally occur. There were medicine cloths and ceremonial beads hanging throughout the area.
There are a couple of walking trails around the base of the tower.
We walked the Tower Trail (the smallest and closest to the tower.) It was 1.3 miles around with some steep terrain at times. It was just perfect for my level of hiking (which isn’t saying much because there were elderly people with canes that walked it, too.)
Here is a gallery of more pictures from Devils Tower. I wish I could add the smell of the forest to this gallery. The pine trees smelled so nice and fresh. (The pine tree air freshener, that you buy for your car, only wished it smelled like this.)
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I really want to hike Devil’s Tower one day, even more so after viewing your awesome photos! Nice shot of the deer in the one photo, too. I sure wish I could smell those pine trees!
Some magnificent scenery. Devil’s Tower certainly embodies all the grandeur of nature.
Wow! this is indeed a cool page . Nice post.
We were there last summer, and found it to be very interesting! Those layers of rock are so incomprehensibly huge, and look so tiny from our puny human standpoints, don’t they? A very pretty area. Nice pics – I didn’t know about the significance of the month of June either, so I learned something new!