Devils Tower National Monument

We drove north from Custer along the west side of the Black Hills National forest.  Outstanding scenery.  We drove past areas where fires had been recently.  We even saw several active fires from a distance.  We later found out that two different roads we could have used were both shut down due to fires.  I guess we got lucky.

You can see the tower from over 20 miles away.  Aileen and I have been joking about seeing “another big rock”; however, as you get close to this big piece of rock it is awe inspiring.  At the entrance Aileen wanted to take a photo of the large flag juxtaposed against the monument.  This is probably one of the best photos either of us has ever taken.

The rock is volcanic rock and formed in hexagonal columns.  Almost looks man made.  It just some 800 feet above the surrounding area.  We took a nice walk around the tower and met a mother / daughter couple, Laura and Perry Jeffords, travelling home to Pennsylvania from San Francisco.  We could see several people climbing the tower and overheard a tour guide say that people from ages 6 to 80 have climbed the tower and the fastest ascent was in 18 minutes.  When looking up at that big piece of rock it was very hard to believe someone could scale it within 18 minutes.

The climbing of the monument brought up a general discussion regarding who has rights to these national parks and monuments.  The majority of parks and monuments were also revered by the native American Indians and it drives them crazy to see people climbing the Devils Tower.  To them, this was one of the most sacred of places and is violated every time someone climbs it.  I enjoy the park system; indeed, this is what we set out to do but it does make one pause about how we should be using these lands.  I am glad they are protected but not sure of the impact with native peoples.

We left the monument and drove several hundred miles to Big Sky Montana.  The topography changed dramatically after Billings Montana.  From there, the landscape became mountainous with beautiful rivers flowing along the highway.  This is my general vision of Montana.