A close encounter with Devils Tower in Wyoming

September 18, 2018


The ultimate destination on our mother-daughter road trip through the Great American West last month was Devils Tower National Monument in northeastern Wyoming. (Yes, the lack of apostrophe is the correct geographic spelling.) I’ve wanted to see it for years, ever since it appeared as a hub for UFO meetups in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. As a child I could hardly believe such a weird-looking formation actually existed.


Devils Tower stands high above the Black Hills prairie like a gigantic tree stump. You won’t happen upon it while heading somewhere else. Like Big Bend National Park in West Texas, its remoteness from cities means you have to mean to see it. That makes getting there even more special.


We arrived near sunset on August 9, just missing the Devils Tower congregation of thousands of bikers during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. On that mellow late afternoon, we had it nearly to ourselves, just us and a few bison in a field outside the park.


How iconic is this scene? Bison, prairie, and Devils Tower.


For good measure, a longhorn made an appearance too.


The next morning we got up before sunrise to visit Devils Tower again for an early morning hike. Once again, we had it nearly to ourselves.


We did spot one family scrambling among the boulders that litter the base of the tower.


The boulders are remnants of the tower’s hexagonal columns that have fallen over the millennia. The tower was once much wider than it is today, and it continues to erode.


A paved trail winds around the base of the tower, for a fairly easy 1.3-mile hike with picturesque views, especially in the morning light.


How did this oddity come to be? According to the National Park Service website:

“Geologists agree that Devils Tower was formed by the intrusion (the forcible entry of magma into or between other rock formations) of igneous material. What they cannot agree upon is how that process took place and whether or not the magma reached the land surface….The magma which formed Devils Tower cooled and crystallized into a rock type known as phonolite porphyry….Hot molten magma is less dense and occupies more volume than cool hardened rock. As the rock cooled, it contracted, forming hexagonal (and sometime 4-, 5- and 7-sided) columns separated by vertical cracks….Until erosion began its relentless work, Devils Tower was not visible above the overlying sedimentary rocks.”


The vertical columns give Devils Tower its distinctive pleated appearance. From below it’s hard to grasp the scale of the thing…


…until you spot rock climbers standing atop one of the columns, with another scaling the rock face above them.


Devils Tower park management conducts prescribed fires periodically in different sections of the park, mimicking natural wildfire but with less risk to visitors, wildlife, and structures than would come from a naturally occurring wildfire. This rocky meadow shows signs of a recent burning.


Devils Tower is known as Bear Lodge by several Native American tribes, who consider the tower a sacred place. We spotted a few prayer flags and offerings tied to trees around the tower.


Below the tower, a prairie dog town stretching across a broad meadow is a popular spot for photos of the chirping rodents.


Below the prairie dog meadow sits a marble sculpture called Circle of Sacred Smoke. Created by Japanese artist Junkyu Muto, this is one of 7 “peace sculptures” Muto is creating for sacred sites around the world.


It’s a beautiful work, especially when viewing the tower through the central opening. Unfortunately the base could be better. The two large boulders supporting the sculpture look haphazard, as does thin steel edging around a rock bed. It would look better sitting atop a single flat rock or even a clean-lined concrete base.


The sculpture itself, a veined ribbon of white marble twisting like smoke from a peace pipe, is perfect for the site.


Devils Tower is a remarkable place from a historical, geological, and cultural perspective. It was even better than I expected — and my expectations for wonder, formed from watching Close Encounters all those years ago, were pretty high. And of course sharing the experience with my daughter, soon to depart for college, made it even better.


The lonely tower makes for an epic sunset-watching location.


And the American highway is always ready to take you there.

This concludes my recap of our Great American West road trip. For a look back at our visit to Mount Rushmore, click here.

I welcome your comments; please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading this in a subscription email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post.
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20 responses to “A close encounter with Devils Tower in Wyoming”

  1. Peter says:

    Thanks for taking us along! I especially liked the image with the rock climbers for perspective – that thing is huge! What a special mother/daughter trip!

  2. Heidi says:

    Thanks for sharing your breathtaking pics, I totally enjoyed seeing this part of our land through your eyes! This is a memory you will both treasure forever.
    Your straightforward insight is appreciated and respected. I agree with you about the sculpture base, this wonderful work of art deserved an appropriate pedestal and surround.
    We just got through a weekend of flooding down here, hope Austin got some rain. Come on autumn, you can’t get here soon enough!

  3. Alison says:

    That shot of the rock climbers is a real OMG moment. I first heard about Devils Tower from the movie Close Encounters too, such a strange place. I had to laugh at your description of it as looking like a tree stump, there are actually people who believe it is a fossilized tree stump and that trees that big once grew on the earth (not me). The same kind of people who believe that the earth is flat and that NASA is lying.

  4. Kris P says:

    I know I often applaud the quality of your photos, Pam, but you’ve outdone yourself with this set. The photo of the hikers that provided scale was perfect and I loved those including the local furry residents as well.

  5. Nell says:

    Being one of the tiny handful of people who’ve never seen Close Encounters, I was completely unaware of Devils Tower. But your photo tour is so good that I now feel I’ve been there. (And gotten to know the locals… like that personable prairie dog!)

  6. Lisa at Greenbow says:

    I see that in that second picture you spotted a couple of the Devil’s spawn. Other than that what a delightful trip. One I bet you both remember.

  7. Denise Maher says:

    So it’s not made of mashed potatoes? 😉
    You two make a great photodocumentary team!

  8. Maggie C says:

    What a fun trip you must have had with your daughter! I agree that you’ll each treasure it forever, and I’m always happy to see the next generation appreciate the beauty of our national parks. I’ve been trying to deduce where your daughter is going to school based on the t-shirts…U of Oregon, UC Santa Cruz?! I understand you may not want to share that publicly, but where ever she landed, I hope she has a great experience, and that you have a smooth adjustment to the empty nest. Thanks so much for sharing your travels!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Hah! As you noticed, she wore a number of her school-scouting shirts on this trip. She ended up at a Texas school, though, and I’m sure those other shirts were left behind at home when she went. They were a fun reminder of all the schools we visited together during her junior year.

  9. Pam—Sigh, so beautiful. Your photography here is stellar. Thanks so much for sharing this trip, as it’s armchair travel to a bucket list for me as well. Funny, I am just finishing Craig Johnson’s mystery novel set in Hulett/Devil’s Tower. You might enjoy! Title is An Obvious Fact, in the Walt Longmire series. (The beginning was s-l-o-w…almost ditched it. Hang in until Vic gets there. I’ve read all the series, so I may not be the best judge for stand-alone.)

  10. Sherry says:

    What absolutely incredible photography. I must go to this gorgeous place!