Devil's Tower (Devils Tower) - is located in the northwestern United States, in the heart of the Great Plains (in the Bell Foursh River Valley, Wyoming), near the low Black Hills ridge overgrown with pine trees. It is a monolithic basalt mountain (monolith of volcanic origin) 1558 m above sea level (386 m above the river valley) and a relative height of 265 m.
It is the "national monument" of the United States. The Devils Tower is estimated to be between 225 and 195 million years old. The mountain of unusually regular shape, for a long time gave the impression of an artificial structure, but not human, but of devilish origin. It should be noted that the rock is 2.5 times larger than the Cheops pyramid.
The geographic coordinates of Devil's Tower are 44 ° 35'25 ″ north; 104 ° 42'55 ″ west longitude.
Name. Features:
According to one of the legends, the mountain got its name due to a linguistic error. 1875 - During the expedition of Colonel Richard Dodge, the translator incorrectly translated the words of the local Indians. Instead of the House of the Bear, the mountain began to be called the House of the Bad God, and later - the Devil's Tower.
Mysterious is its appearance, similar either to a powerful fortress tower, or from a monstrous stump. Its completely illogical appearance among the plains stretching for hundreds of kilometers is also mysterious.
Lightning often strikes its flat top, because on the vast plain in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Devil's Tower is the only such object. Its ribbed truncated cone rises almost four hundred meters above the river flowing nearby and is visible on clear days for 160 km. At the base, the diameter of this huge basalt rock reaches 300 m, and in the upper part it decreases to 84 m.
Promotional video:
How the Devil's Tower appeared
For geologists, the origin of the basalt cone is not a mystery. 50 million years ago, when the territory of the Great Plains was covered by the sea and thick strata of sediments were deposited at the bottom of it, in the place where the Devils Tower is now, a molten mass of magma penetrated from the depths into these sedimentary rocks. Having pushed apart the sandstones, shales and limestones that formed the seabed, the magma froze, before reaching the surface, in the form of a columnar basalt body. Scientists call these bodies stocks.
Millions of years passed and the sea retreated, and erosion processes over time destroyed the cover of softer sedimentary rocks, leaving the mighty stock to show off in the open. The basalts of which it is composed, as it cooled down, turned into picturesque vertical formations, similar to hexagonal pillars. This kind of polygonal prisms can be observed in other places where basalts are found. Of these are composed, for example, the gigantic dam of the Bridge of Giants in Ireland or the high coastal cliffs of the Kuril Islands.
Tower and time
The towering stock of the Devil's Tower, involuntarily captivating the eyes in the middle of the endless plain, is an extremely majestic and unique sight. Of course, even the most durable rock will not be able to withstand the forces of erosion in the end, and pieces of faceted columns gradually separate from the top of the rock and fall down, thereby forming a gentle hill at its base. But the main part of the giant stone cylinder is still a spectacular stone "sheaf" of smooth basalt "ears" with sheer walls. Climbing it, and especially going down, is not an easy task, even for seasoned climbers equipped with ultra-modern equipment.
Summit conquest
This peak was conquered only twice: a local resident in the 19th century and rock climber Jack Durrance in 1938. The plane will not be able to land on the summit, and the helicopters are literally blown off a small platform. Experienced skydiver George Hopkins wanted to become the third conqueror of Devil's Tower.
He landed successfully, but all the special ropes thrown to him from the planes became unusable from hitting the rocks. The parachutist was held hostage to the mountain. News of this spread throughout the United States. Soon, dozens of planes were circling in the air, dropping free food and equipment on Hopkins. However, most of them did not make it.
As it turned out, hordes of rats live on the inaccessible smooth granite rock, which became more and more impudent every night. If life is not there, then the question of what these insatiable creatures eat remains a mystery. A specially assembled Hopkins rescue committee called in experienced climber Ernst Field with a partner. However, the climbers returned after 3 hours of ascent. Field confessed: “This damn lump is too tough for us! Professionals conquering peaks with a height of more than 8 km turned out to be powerless in front of a height of 386 meters!"
The committee began to search for D. Durrance through the media. Two days later he arrived and began preparing for the ascent along a route known to him. The climbers, led by Durrance, reached the summit and lowered the exhausted parachutist. In total, Hopkins was a prisoner of the rock for about a week.
The inexplicable pull of the mountain
The Giant Tower has enjoyed wide popularity for over 200 years. Drawings and engravings with her image, and later photographs of this natural masterpiece, went around all geographical publications and geology textbooks. And travelers who crossed the northern part of the United States certainly tried to see its mighty silhouette and take away a piece of basalt, picked up at its foot, as a souvenir. Its power of attraction seems inexplicable. After all, there are also rocks in America that are even stranger in shape, and they are located in picturesque mountain areas or in an exotic environment of desert landscapes. But for some reason, neither the enchanted stone city of the Monument Valley, nor the bizarre outlier cliffs in Colorado's canyons arouse such interest among tourists.
But no matter how picturesque the "stone forests" of Cappadocia and Madagascar, the castles of Meteora or the round caps of the islands of Halong Bay, these are just charming landscapes, nothing more. A completely different matter is the cyclopean buildings, created jointly by long-suffering surface processes and the fierce, frenzied fury of the boiling hot bowels of the Earth.
At the sight of them, there is a respectful admiration and a slight shock from a certain physical sensation of the immense titanic power of those forces that lurk for the time being in the hot possessions of Pluto and, having escaped to freedom, freeze with giant black cannons, as if ready to fight against thunderclouds. And no traveler can ever forget the austere grandeur of the Devil's Tower, which exposes its rough ribbed sides to thunderstorms and winds in the vast expanses of the American Great Plains.
Note for tourists
The cost of parking at the Devils Tower is $ 10 per car for up to 7 days. This amount also includes tourist taxes for each passenger. For a motorcycle, parking will cost $ 5. In case you got to the reserve by taxi, the tourist tax is paid additionally - it is $ 5 for each tourist.
Several hiking trails run around the cliff. The length of the longest is almost 3 km, and the shortest is just over a kilometer. Near the tower there is a picnic area and a tourist office, where you can get all the information you need about the place, have a snack, buy souvenirs, and, if necessary, hire a guide. The center is open from 8:00 to 19:00.
Every year in June, the leadership of the national monument asks climbers and tourists to voluntarily refrain from climbing the rock. The local Indians consider the first summer month to be sacred: they perceive climbing the mountain during this period as disrespect for their culture. The rest of the time the tower is accessible to climbers.
The nearest campground is Bel Forch Campground, 4 km south of the Devils Tower. It works only during the summer season, from May to September. Accommodation cost - $ 12 per day per car. There are 50 places in total.
More detailed information not only about Devil's Tower, but also about other natural attractions of Wyoming is available on the official website of the US National Park Service.
How to get there
The cities closest to Devil's Tower are Hewlett (14 km northeast of the reserve), Sundance (43 km southeast) and Morcroft (53 km southwest). It is possible to get there along the WY24 and US-14 highways. There is no public transport in this part of Wyoming; you can only get there by a rented car or taxi.