Visiting The Unusual Devils Tower National Monument In Wyoming

One of the places I was most looking forward to visiting in Wyoming was Devils Tower National Monument. Devils Tower is a natural phenomenon – a rocky landmark seemingly inexplicably rising out of the ground like a chimney.

I’d seen numerous photos of it online and it looked fascinating, so we booked a stay in Gillette for five days so that we’d have an opportunity to visit Devils Tower National Monument which was an hour’s drive away. (Side note: if you’re traveling with kids, the Fairfield Inn & Suites Gillette is a great place to stay as it has a water park.)

When driving to the landmark from Gillette, you can see it from more than 15 miles away.

As we drove closer, there was a pull-off where you can get more photos from a distance, as well as learn more about the National Monument and how it was formed.

If you’re in an RV or enjoy camping, there’s a KOA campground nearby which has superb views of the rocky tower.

President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower as the nation’s first ever National Monument on September 24, 1906. As a result, it’s now run by the National Park Service. The entrance fees vary depending on how you enter; at the time of our visit in September 2024 the fees were:

• Private vehicle – $25
• Motorcycle – $20
• By foot – $15

However, if you have an annual National Parks pass, the entrance fee is covered by that.

After finding a space in the parking lot, we walked up towards the visitor center. Just outside the visitor center there was a helpful selfie stand.

Put your phone on it, set the timer and voilà – a selfie of you with Devils Tower in the background.

We’d brought our dog Truffles with us despite knowing that it’s not a particularly pet-friendly site. Dogs aren’t allowed in the visitor center or any other park buildings, nor on any of the trails – even paved ones. However, they are allowed in parking areas, along roadways, the Belle Fourche campground road, the road to Joyner Ridge trailhead, the picnic area near the campground and in the Belle Fourche campground.

I waited outside with Truffles while Shae went in to check out the visitor center’s exhibits, then we switched places.

It’s thought that Devils Tower was formed as a result of magma being pushed through rock layers 50-60 million years ago, although scientists apparently aren’t in agreement regarding exactly how that happened. Since that time though, older rock layers eroded leaving what’s remaining.

Native Americans have their own origin story for how Devils Tower came into being. Lakota, Crow, Cheyenne and Kiowa traditions say that the tower formed to help their ancestors escape bear attacks, with the tower’s lines being created by bear scratches. As a result, Devils Tower is commonly known as Bear Lodge by indigenous peoples.

There are a couple of trails at Devils Tower National Monument. There’s the 0.2 mile Tower trail which takes you closer to the base of the landmark, then there’s the 2.8 mile Red Beds trail which is a loop trail around the base of the tower, albeit with 450 feet of elevation gain.

The Tower trail has some information boards along the way that share more details about the tower. What was particularly interesting about this display is that it’s mounted on rock which was once part of Devils Tower but which since fell off.

Although you get good views of Devils Tower from the visitor center, the views get significantly better the closer you get.

Getting closer also makes it easier to see the rocky columns that were reminiscent of Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Here’s the two natural landmarks side by side to make it easier to see how they compare.

The tower is a very popular rock climbing spot, with thousands of people ascending Devils Tower each year. There are more than 200 different routes up and it can take anything from 18 minutes to 8 hours to climb it. The youngest person to ascend the tower was six years old, while the oldest was more than 90 years old. On the day we visited, we saw at least a couple of people attempting one of the routes.

If you’re wondering what the top of Devils Tower looks like if you manage to climb to the top, the visitor center had a photo:

Considering it was the end of September when we visited, it was surprisingly hot out the day we were there. The heat – and the fact that we’d have to take it in turns to hike the 2.8 mile Red Beds trail due to having Truffles with us – meant we didn’t hike that entire distance. Instead, I walked up the Tower trail and then took a small part of the Red Beds trail to see the National Monument from a few different angles.

On our drive out of the park we stopped by the side of the road for a couple of reasons. One was that we were able to view the tower from a different angle (it was here that we spotted a couple of climbers)…

…and the other reason was that there was a prairie dog town off to the right.

Final Thoughts

Devils Tower National Monument is a fascinating landmark that’s definitely worth visiting if you’ll be on the eastern side of Wyoming or western side of South Dakota near Rapid City, Spearfish, Deadwood, etc.