Devil's Tower Wyoming

Our first view of Devil's Tower.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt declared this the first national monument, based on natural rather than cultural features. 

On the way, we read the Kiowa legend about the seven sisters. There are many other legends associated with this sacred place.

Normally, there is an admission fee to enter, but the day were were visited, there was no cost due to it being National Public Lands Day.

After going to the visitors center, we headed up to the tower.

And decided to walk around it.

There were a lot of climbers. We counted 30 on our walk around. Being a sacred place to many tribes, nobody is allowed to climb the tower during the month of June, when there are many sacred ceremonies held.

Repelling

Some climbers headed up.

If one looks closely at the photos, climbers can be seen around the tower. Click on the photo to make it bigger.

Some climbers starting up.

The fasted climb ever was 18 minutes by Todd Skinner. A typical climb is 4-6 hours.

Prayer bundle. We thought this one was filled with sage.

gorgeous views!

Prayer bundle

Climbers. One was a young girl. The next photo shows them from a farther distance, so you can see, they are up a ways!

Looking through one of these pipes, one can see the remnants of the original wooden ladder used by the first climbers of the tower.

It can be seen here in this photo on the right.

Prayer cloths 

She thought we were much farther than halfway.

It was a beautiful and very spiritual hike.

On our way down the mountain we stopped at Prairie Dog Town.

Cute little buggers

This town spanned both sides of the road.