Devils Tower – Devils Tower, Wyoming

The location of Devils Tower has been a sacred place to the Native American Indians for centuries. Here they hold their rituals such as prayer offerings, sweat lodge ceremonies, vision quests, and funerals. The Tower was declared a National Monument by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. It was the first ever National Monument.

Climbing the Devils Tower is a real challenge even today. Because of the concern of damage to the rock surface today’s climbers are free climbing the rock surface. The first climb was done in 1893 by two ranchers who built a wooden ladder 350 ft tall and drove it into the vertical crack that ran between two columns on the southeast side of the Tower.

This park is also the home to a number of wildlife such as deer, prairie dogs and the beautiful prairie falcon. When the Prairie falcon builds a nest in the cracks of the rock the trails closest to the nest are closed off to climbers until the falcons fledge.