Ever since I saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind when I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to visit Devil’s Tower, and it didn’t disappoint! After breakfast with Peggy and Bill, I gassed up and met Dad, Ellen, and their riding group at the Holiday Inn and we headed north toward Belle Fourche, SD. A slight turn northwest put us into Wyoming, where we encountered road construction that had our route down to one lane. Since the one-way construction delays tend to be longer out west, we all turned off our bikes and walked around and chatted, ultimately waiting probably 20 minutes or more for the traffic to pass through from the other direction. We passed into southeast Montana just as the construction zone ended and pulled off at the Stoneville Saloon in Alzada, MT, which advertised “cheap drinks, lousy food” but was quite a sight to see inside – lots of paraphernalia hanging from the ceiling, and hand-written bumper sticker style quotes tacked to the ceiling as well. The bartender was called the Leopard Lady because of her leopard spot tattoos, and the actual bar was supposedly transported to its current location by covered wagon. After downing a quick Diet Coke, we were back on the road towards Hulett and the Devil’s Tower National Monument. This particular route was chosen because of the dramatic presentation of Devil’s Tower, as it simply appears before you for the first time as you round a bend in the road.
After a lunch stop at the general store outside the entrance to Devil's Tower, we rode up to the base of the monument and took a one-mile stroll around the Tower Trail, which encircles the base of the tower. In June, there is a voluntary ban on climbing the tower in deference to the native American peoples who hold the mountain sacred. Nonetheless, there were three climbers working their way down the face of the tower. It's hard to imagine how there could possibly be enough foot and hand-holds for anyone to climb to the top, but I guess anything's possible if you are determined enough. On the walk around the tower, we saw charred trees from the controlled burns used by the park service to control forest fires, and we also saw some of the prayer blankets and markers left behind by native Americans in tribute. The native American legends of the Lakota Sioux and Kiowa tell the story of the formation of Devil's Tower - an older sister was turned into a bear and tried to kill her younger sister, but she was spared when the mountain began to grow up into the sky to save her. The bear created the vertical striations on the sides of the tower by scratching at it with her claws to try to get at the younger sister. The more scientific explanation (but not as entertaining) is that a column of magma intruded into the surrounding layers of sedimentary rock, which used to extend a mile and a half above the current top of the tower. Millions of years of erosion have exposed the tower as it apears today, and the Belle Fourche river continues the process even now.
After completing our trek, we met the rest of the group back at the general store and made for home, but not without a stop in Aladdin, Wyoming, population 15, to get a cold drink at the small store there. Then it was back to Peggy and Bill's for dinner with them and dad and Ellen. Tomorrow we head for "home" in Loveland, Colorado, with a run through Custer State Park and a look at Mount Rushmore.
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