Devils Tower

Tuesday, August 12, Hermosa, SD

(images have not been resized - click on them for hi-res views)

A couple of weeks ago, we awoke to a great day of sunshine and moderate temperatures and decided to take a road trip to Wyoming and Devils Tower National Monument - yes, the same one in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  But first, a stop at a couple of unknown Wyoming treasures.

Vore Buffalo Jump

First stop was the Wyoming Welcome Center.  No pictures (unless Mary put it on Facebook) but a great stop.  A bit of a museum, nature center, and tourist promotion kiosk.  Whatever it was, it was done right.  If you are traveling on I-90 in Eastern Wyoming, you should stop.  The second was something we didn't anticipate - The Vore Buffalo Jump.

This was discovered in the late 1960s during the construction of I-90.  Even the Vore family who owned the land didn't know what they had.  Surveyors discovered a sink hole right in the middle of the prospective highway.  The Vore family had used it as trash dump (what else do you do with a big hole in the middle of your property) and the road guys figured they had better do some investigations before the just filled it in and paved it.  They did some test bores and discovered a bone pile that dated back to the 1500s when the native americans first started using it to harvest buffalo.  The layers are so distinct that the exact years it was in use can be established.  Native americans stopped using this harvest method when they obtained firearms in the 1800s.

Active digging area

The area is administered by the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation and is an active training site for archeology students.  The estimate is that 20,000 buffalo were harvested here during the 300 years it was in use.  The Plains indians relied heavily on the buffalo as a source of food, shelter, clothing.

Buffalo skull

Devils Tower

After the nice, unexpected break, we set off for Devi's Tower.  This really should be on your "Do not miss" list of North America.  The drive to the tower is beautiful - the high northern plains remain easy on the eyes with grasslands and pine trees making you wish you could just stay there all year.

First siting 

 The tower is a product of erosion.  While the material that makes up the tower is igneous in origin, it was thought to never have reached the surface.  This area was once part of an inland sea and was eroded by water and wind.  The tower,  being of much harder material was revealed over hundreds of millions of years.

Just a few miles away

 The first national monument in the United States was named in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt - Devils Tower.  The Tower also plays a significant role in Native American history and lore and is considered a sacred site to some tribes.  By the way, the name, Devils Tower, was the result of a bad translation into English by an early explorer.

Still about a mile from the entrance

Climber at the summit

 Devils Tower is very popular with climbers.  It was first climbed in the 1890s using a 300' long wooden ladder.  The first technical climb was in 1937.  We noticed this young women at the top when we were eating lunch in the picnic area.

Climbers in route

 And these climbers at the top of a column ready to start their assent.

View from the trail around the base

 You can easily get a 360 degree perspective of the tower by taking the 1 mile hike around the base.

Remnants of the wood ladder used to scale the dome the first time

View from the prairie dog village

 A trip to a National anything around these parts wouldn't be complete without a visit to the prairie dog village.  Cute, social, and very protected within National Park or Monument borders, these guys are everywhere.

Prairie dog