![]() The trail that circles the entire butte leads through a patch of forest. There are several hiking trails, the most popular being the paved 1.3-mile Tower Trail that circles the monolith at its base. The Belle Fourche River Campground is usually open from May to October. The visitor center is open from 9am to 4pm every day, except for Christmas Day and New Years Day. The monument is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year round. Tips for visiting Devils Tower National Monument Scree (boulders, rocks and fragments at the base of buttes and cliffs) surrounding the tower are signs of continued erosion. The actual rock formation didn’t become visible until water and wind eroded the surrounding landscape. It’s believed by many that it was not actually a volcano itself, but that the magma had been pushed up between sedimentary rock by the same forces that created the Rocky Mountains. The butte is made of igneous rock, meaning it was created by lava or magma cooling off. How was Devils Tower (aka Bear Lodge) formed? Prairie dog’s perspective of Devils Tower. However, some people are worried that changing the name would hurt the tourist trade. There have been several petitions to change the official name to Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark. The name Devils Tower came about when in 1875 an interpreter incorrectly translated the local name to “Bad God’s Tower”. The different tribes’ names for the rock formation mostly relate to bears: Bear’s House (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear’s Lair (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear’s Lodge (Cheyenne, Lakota), Bear’s Lodge Butte (Lakota), Bear’s Tipi (Arapaho, Cheyenne), Tree Rock (Kiowa), Aloft on a Rock (Kiowa), and Grizzly Bear Lodge (Lakota). Many of the names relate to imaginative origin tales that often include the monolith rising from the surface to save someone from a bear, which in turn left its claw marks on the tower’s surface. Colorful prayer cloths at Bear Lodge Butte (aka Devils Tower National Monument). As you follow the trail around the hill, you’ll probably see colorful cloths and bundles left as offerings. ![]() Spiritual rituals still take place today. Much more importantly, the lone butte has been a sacred site to tribes of the Northern Plains for centuries. That’s probably why Stephen Spielberg decided to prominently feature Devils Tower in his 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. ![]() With its striking shape and its solitude on the horizon, the unique mountain inspires awe and imagination. Classic view of unique and solitary Devils Tower in Wyoming. The summit of the butte (steep, flattop hill) rises 1,267 feet (386 m) above the Belle Fourche River and 5,114 feet (1,559 m) above sea level. Tips for visiting Devils Tower National Monumentĭevils Tower is a 867-feet-tall rock formation that stands alone among mellower hills, forests and grasslands in northeastern Wyoming, at the outskirts of the Black Hills.How was Devils Tower (aka Bear Lodge) formed?.
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