Devil's Tower, August 2004

I drove up to see Chuck from Corvallis, who happens to also be the climbing ranger at Devil's Tower. It's a gorgeous 7-hour drive from Boulder, including some cool Oregon Trail historical sites in Gurnsey, and a nice diner in Lusk. We then climbed for a few days, and I drove back. This weekend happened to fall just a few days before the annual Sturgis Rally in nearby South Dakota came through town, so we intermingled with the bikers a good deal on the 1/4-mile, 1-hour walks between the tower base and the visitor center.

Answers to the top questions along the trail:

• "Oh, about five hours up, maybe an hour to get down."
• "Pretty flat, couple rocks."
• "No major falls have been recorded in the park, and some geologists say it's been 10,000 years since any of the columns fell."
• "That's against park regulations, although people have been forced to spend the night."
• "Actually, isn't that Harley you got there pretty dangerous?"

Interestingly, we witnessed (unbeknownst to us) the first party attempting to climb the tower with paragliding equipment. They were moving slowly up El Matador with huge packs (`Vee have much vater and headlamps vith us, sir.') before giving up. They successfully climbed Durrance the next day instead, and sailed off the top to the ground, where Chuck arranged for their $350 fine.

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Run Slideshow (big images)

	Driving up through Southern Wyoming.
	I had a timelapse camera going the whole time, taking shots every few seconds. Check out the movie.
	SAR room at Park HQ.
	The Minnesota Trio begins Durrance (their very first lead climb ever!)
	Jake's large feet helped him also climb the first several pitches of Durrance (his second climb ever!)
	Topping out.
	AHT has joined us.
	Looking over the West side.
	AHT has completed one more final climb. (No, none of us jump.)
	This is cool! AHT and I are both in awe of the blocks of columnar basalt littering the ground below.
	Summit register, depicting misdemeanor-in-progress.
	Chuck patrols the West side of the tower.
	AHT failed to leave a proper contact phone number.
	Bikers have arrived!
	Timelapse camera to be used for DETO documentary.
	We do a bit more climbing the next day on the West side. (Much less weathered -- why?)
	We happily exchange photos of us with our climbing gear, for photos of bikers in their gear.
	Bikers point at the paragliding party (although their gliders are still ensconced in their packs).
	Home of the world-famous Devil's Tower five-dollar milkshake.
	The recently-raised yurt of Chuck and Katie.
	Cooking in Chuck's fancy camper kitchen.
	Check out that camper!
	Check out that yurt!