Just Like In The Movies

Devils Tower, WY

July 22, 2019

By: Mark

Comments Off on Just Like In The Movies
Devils Tower, WY

I love this place!

The plan for the day was simple and didn’t involve any pedalling. Well, it didn’t involve MUCH pedalling anyway. With the exception of a short ride (including a longish gravel road) to/from the Devils Tower Visitor Center, today would be a day of walking. Walking around Devils Tower. And there are essentially two options for doing so. Spoiler Alert: I ended up doing both. And the weather cooperated beautifully.

The ride to the Visitor Center was only 2 km and mostly uphill but certainly manageable – especially with my bike uploaded. The two trails that circle Devils Tower are the Tower Trail and the Red Beds Trail. There are other tangent trails that extend from the latter but I didn’t do any of those. The Tower Trail is closest to the base of Devils Tower and is the easier of the two trails. It’s paved. Mostly flat. And is only 2 km. And, as Gabriel told me, it’s typically very crowded. As such, my initial plan was to do the outer trail (aka. The Red Beds Trail). The outer trail trail takes a wider route around Devils Tower. Has more ups and downs. Isn’t paved. And is about 4.5 km. As for its busyness … I saw three people on the trail.

Hiking around the base really offers a great perspective on both the size of Devils Tower as well as how different each of the sides look. And yes, some views are more familiar than others as most people will recognize Devils Tower from its being featured in a somewhat old but very enjoyable movie. I feel I don’t need to say this but if by some chance you’re thinking, “What movie?”, well … Devils Tower plays a pretty prominent role in the movie, “Paul”. I highly recommend it. Oh, and it was also in another movie called, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. It’s pretty good too.

: I know I included a shot like this in yesterday’s update but I like this one better.

: The routes.

: Part of the Red Beds Trail.

: Devils Tower. You can really see where sections have fallen off.

: Further along the trail.

: The line of cars waiting to access the park.

: Still further along the trail.

: The Tower Trail (inner loop)

: Boulder field

: If you look closely you can see climbers on the wall

: If you look not-so-closely you can see me on the boulder field.

: More climbers.

: The aforementioned wooden stake ladder is up there somewhere

: Historic wooden stake ladder (yes, still hard to see).

: Big missing section. Well, it’s not so much “missing” … it’s in the boulder field below.

: Unsuccessful long exposure shot

There’s not really much more I can add that can’t be summed up with a bunch of photos (many of which look the same) in a photo gallery. So I suggest you click the Photo Gallery icon.

Oh, and while I hadn’t originally intended to hike both trails I figured, “When am I going to be here again?” So, I decided to walk the additional 2 km of the Tower Trail. And I’m really glad I did. There were definitely a LOT of people on said trail but the inner trail offers a great view of the boulder field which you are welcome to climb and crawl over. Essentially, the boulder field consists of the remains from columns that have fallen from the tower – fortunately, not recently.

Unsuccessful long exposure (60 seconds) shot … the brightness of which seems to vary greatly depending on what screen I’m looking at. Sigh.

With my hikes complete I pedalled the 2 km back to my home at the Devils Tower Lodge to try to get caught up on a blog entry or two as well as plot my course for the coming days. Both tasks were moderately successful.

At the end of the day there was another great dinner with my hosts and the other guests at the lodge before everyone once again retired for the evening. My evening retirement was temporarily interrupted around midnight as I ventured out of my tent to do some stargazing. And it was pretty incredible. Sadly, my attempts to capture such views on camera were not particularly successful. Oh well. Trust me. It was stunning.