Devils Tower - Wyoming by odie
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Description
After leaving our Black Hills campsite we headed right for Devils Tower Monument. We'd heard so much about this tower but it was a magnificent view - and to be there in person!! Here are some interesting facts and one theory on it's formation:
Devils Tower rises above the surrounding grassland and Ponderosa pine forests like a rocky sentinel. Northern Plains tribes worshipped at this remarkable geologic formation long before white men wandered into the West, and fur trappers, explorers, and settlers alike were awed by the Tower's majesty. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established Devils Tower as our nation's first national monument. Many have gazed at the Tower and wondered, "How did this amazing formation get here? How did it form?"
"Geologists agree that Devils Tower was formed by the intrusion (the forcible entry of molten rock into or between other rock formations) of igneous material."
AND
"Until erosion began its relentless work, Devils Tower was not visible above the overlying sedimentary rocks. But the forces of erosion - particularly that of water - began to wear away the sandstones and shales. The much harder igneous rock survived the onslaught of erosional forces, and the gray columns of Devils Tower began to appear above the surrounding landscape."
My family and I spent over an hour gazing at this amazing tower until the weather forced us to head back to our motor home.
Thanks for stopping by and any comments you wish to leave.
Blessings,
Jodie
Comments (26)
Impressive capture!
This is also (if I remember correctly) the alien landing site in 'Close Encounters Of The Third Kind'. Great to see it in a natural state and glad to see it has not been damages too much by mans intrusion.
Yes, I'm sure this is the same tower they used in the 1977 movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Richard Dreyfuss kept making miniatures of it in his home. And the tower is where the Earthlings and ETs make contact. Terrific POV, clarity and raw awesomeness in this shot, Jodie!
Can't see it without seeing Richard Dreyfuss sculpting it out of his mashed potatoes. Beautiful capture! Would love to see it in person.
Mine was made of cold grits...thick enough to stack well. Odie, thanks very much for this view. I love it and would love to make the trip.
A delightful glimpse of this monument! Awesome perspective and lighting!
We have a similar thing here in California that I have always wanted to see...the Devil's Postpile. This is really magnificent and I can feel the excitement of being there.
Great shot, watched the film, now I've seen the original,thanks.
Great capture, nice to see the original after seeing the movie, well done...
Pleeased to se it is a real place not CGI, good view point
Excellent capture of this magnificent structure formed by nature
"If everything is quiet on the dark side of the moon, play the pipe tones" Love this place, I was saying to honey a while back, will have to visit this!
Wonderful capture Jodie.
Geology is so fascinating! What a cool rock formation, and a great capture!
a wonder here on how it is. this is a wonderful shot of it too
I'd love to visit this place. Awesome capture Jodie!
hi Jodie ! , nice to see you , great image and superb composition , really fantastic !
Phenomenal capture and narrative. Dana
What a spectacle! Awsome shot
more than 4 favs in one sitting is extra—you'll get a bill, lol. I get the feeling from your photos that these sights in the Dakotas are like separate entities, each rising out of the ground completely on their own. Most of them aren't that high (maybe 1000 feet or so), but they have a monumental presence. The shot is beautiful—again, clarity mixed with your modulated light & shade; and the tone of the trees is poetry & so are your proportions. (You got the peak just where it should be, it's imposing & yet it feels almost touchable.) Another natural vision from you, it feels like we could touch it & hold it in our hands even though it's so monumental. Beautiful work, Jodie. And fascinating background too: Thanks, I had no idea that's how the rock got this way. Amazing how many wonders there are out west... If you don't know it, there are Native American legends about this peak. One of them says that children were playing when a huge bear saw them. So the children climbed this peak, and the bear—hungry & mad—clawed at the rock till it got its present shape. Frustrated, the bear lumbered away, and the peak was called "Bear's Claws" because it looked like a peak carved away by a bear. The children, btw, were left stranded & couldn't get down. So a great eagle came & rescued them; and it's said that, once up there, it's very hard to get down. The formations on the side are its natural protection: It's meant to commune with the sky, not be scaled by climbers...
the first white man to stand on top, parachuted from a plane before WWII. they played hell to get him down. In the early 1960s you could still see the boards the rescue team jammed into the crevices. On of the cafes in Sundance, Wyoming (a dozen or so miles east of the Tower, had a photomural of the parachutist with his collapsed chute (the pic taken from an airplane). I,too, have read the Native American legend. The rock cooled in columns with hexagonal cross-section. The material has an almost bell-like ring if you tap it with metal (phonolite).
Powerful in all ways!!!Your photo is wonderful.I love the point of view!
Truly outstanding photos you've been showing.. this one is great.
What a magnificent view of the geological wonder. This is history elevated to its rightful place. Excellent POV.
This is amazing. Of course whenever I see Devil's Tower, I think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the character, Roy Neary building this in his living room and on his dinner plate out of mashed potatoes. Anyway, this is a magnificent photo. You caught a true sense of the scope of this thing...Wonderful.
really impressive!