View allAll Photos Tagged devilstower
View of Devils Tower in Wyoming under some cool clouds and nice greenery in the foreground. Captured with the CPL filter.
Hundreds of climbers scale the sheer rock walls of Devils Tower each summer.
Many established and documented climbing routes cover every side of the tower, ascending the various vertical cracks and columns of the rock. The difficulty of these routes ranges from relatively easy to some of the most challenging in the world. All climbers are required to register with a park ranger before and after attempting a climb. No overnight camping at the summit is allowed; climbers must return to base on the same day they ascend.
Me, I enjoyed the 1.3 mile trail around its base. Beautiful views high and low.
Enjoy a wonderful Sunday!
Was that tree in the foreground burned by the alien's landing thrusters ... another X-files mystery ;)
Another view of Devils Tower, Wyoming. The sun broke through the clouds to give just a little more light in the photo.
From my archives:
Devils Tower (Lakota: Matȟó ThÃpila ("Bear Lodge") or Ptehé Ǧà ("Brown Buffalo Horn") (Arapaho: Wox Niiinon) is an igneous intrusion or laccolith in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 1,267 feet (386 m) above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 5,114 feet (1,559 m) above sea level.
Devils Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Monument's boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres.
In recent years, about 1% of the Monument's 400,000 annual visitors climb Devils Tower, mostly using traditional climbing techniques.
The information above comes from Wikipedia:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower
A closer look of "Devils Tower" near Moorcroft. WY. The sky open up just enough for a better image as the afternoon sun arrived. No UFO's or climbers were spotted on that day.
In 1906 President Teddy Roosevelt designated Devils Tower as our 1st national monument. The tower was formed by magma which cooled underground and was later exposed after millions of years of erosion.
Totally magnificent sight out there rising above the rolling hills...Close Encounters of the Third Kind to be sure!
From my archives:
Devils Tower (Lakota: Matȟó ThÃpila ("Bear Lodge") or Ptehé Ǧà ("Brown Buffalo Horn") (Arapaho: Wox Niiinon) is an igneous intrusion or laccolith in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 1,267 feet (386 m) above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 5,114 feet (1,559 m) above sea level.
Devils Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Monument's boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres.
In recent years, about 1% of the Monument's 400,000 annual visitors climb Devils Tower, mostly using traditional climbing techniques.
The information above comes from Wikipedia:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower
I did not expect to love Devils Tower as much as I did when I went, but it really captivates you when you see it and hike all around it.
"This means something. This is important." — If you're familiar with that famous movie line from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" then you'll remember Richard Dreyfus carving a vision of something out of mashed potatoes. The vision, of course, was Devils Tower. While this isn't a shot of a well-sculpted potato heap, it's definitely the real Devils Tower in Wyoming.
Devils Tower is an eroded laccolith in the Black Hills of Wyoming. A laccolith forms when molten magma forces its way into a rock formation, then cools and hardens. As the surrounding rock erodes away over time, the hardened former magma remains. The streaked surface of Devils Tower reflects the polygonal shaped fractures (columnar joints) that formed as magma contracted as it cooled and hardened. Devils Tower rises 1,267 feet above the nearby Belle Fourche River and according to the National Park Service, the summit is roughly the size of a football field. Photo credit: Alex Demas, USGS.
You can learn more about Devils Tower National Monument at: www.nps.gov/deto/.
Devils Tower (also known as Bear Lodge Butte) is a laccolithic butte composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Mountains (part of the Black Hills) near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet above sea level. Devils Tower was the first United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The monument's boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres. In recent years, about 1% of the monument's 400,000 annual visitors climbed Devils Tower, mostly using traditional climbing techniques. The name Devil's Tower originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, when his interpreter reportedly misinterpreted a native name to mean "Bad God's Tower". All information signs in that area use the name "Devils Tower", following a geographic naming standard whereby the apostrophe is omitted. Native American names for the monolith include: "Bear's House" or "Bear's Lodge" (or "Bear's Tipi", "Home of the Bear", "Bear's Lair"; Cheyenne, Lakota Matȟó ThÃpila, Crow Daxpitcheeaasáao "Home of Bears"), "Aloft on a Rock" (Kiowa), "Tree Rock", "Great Gray Horn", and "Brown Buffalo Horn" (Lakota Ptehé ǦÃ). In 2005, a proposal to recognize several Native American ties through the additional designation of the monolith as Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark met with opposition from United States Representative Barbara Cubin, arguing that a "name change will harm the tourist trade and bring economic hardship to area communities". In November 2014, one Arvol Looking Horse again proposed renaming the geographical feature "Bear Lodge", and submitted the request to the United States Board on Geographic Names. A second proposal was submitted to request that the U.S. acknowledge what it described as the "offensive" mistake in keeping the current name and to rename the monument and sacred site Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark. The formal public comment period ended in fall 2015. Local state senator Ogden Driskill opposed the change. The name was not changed. The landscape surrounding Devils Tower is composed mostly of sedimentary rocks. The oldest rocks visible in Devils Tower National Monument were laid down in a shallow sea during the mid- to late-Triassic period, 225 to 195 million years ago. This dark red sandstone and maroon siltstone, interbedded with shale, can be seen along the Belle Fourche River. Oxidation of iron minerals causes the redness of the rocks. This rock layer is known as the Spearfish Formation. Above the Spearfish Formation is a thin band of white gypsum, called the Gypsum Springs Formation. This layer of gypsum was deposited during the Jurassic period, 195 to 136 million years ago. Created as sea levels and climates repeatedly changed, gray-green shales (deposited in low-oxygen environments such as marshes) were interbedded with fine-grained sandstones, limestones, and sometimes thin beds of red mudstone. This composition, called the Stockade Beaver member, is part of the Sundance Formation. The Hulett Sandstone member, also part of the Sundance Formation, is composed of yellow fine-grained sandstone. Resistant to weathering, it forms the nearly vertical cliffs that encircle the Tower. During the Paleocene Epoch, 56 to 66 million years ago, the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills were uplifted. Magma rose through the crust, intruding into the existing sedimentary rock layers.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devils_Tower
Website: www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm