Its back to sight seeing, we are off to Devils Tower. Depending on where you are in the area around Devils Tower you can see the large formation from far away.
As with many of the natural features we’ve seen in the western part of the country, the “bigness” of it all is hard to covey through pictures.
There are many Indian stories as well as scientific guesses as to the origin of the tower. For the most part geologist agree that the tower is hardened magma from a volcano. What caused the magma to harden before being expelled is under debate.
Indian tribes have many different stories explaining the tower and the surrounding area.
By looking at a topographical map and the red rock beds surrounding the tower, you can see how the Lakota came up with their story.
What we found fascinating is that the rock the tower is made of, phonolite, is found in northeastern Wyoming and central Montana but is mostly found in East Africa. So how did it get here?
The red rock is soft and over millions of years has eroded away exposing the tower.
The tower is made up of columns, some more than 600 feet tall, and 10 to 20 feet wide, the biggest in the world, and are 4, 5, 6, or 7 sided. Climbers love the tower and there was no shortage of them today.
Every June there is a voluntary climbing ban as this is the month when Indian tribes come to perform ceremonies. As we walked around the base of the tower we saw many prayer flags like this one, left by the Indians.
Looking out from the tower at the surrounding valley you can see for many miles and notice how flat the ground away from the tower.
As we were leaving the park we saw this sculpture. Apparently you can look through it towards Devils Tower and it looks like a smoke ring rising up around the tower. It is a tribute to the Indians who worship here.
There was a lot of road construction going on around the monument so we didn’t go down and try to see for ourselves.
