Have you ever wondered what it feels like to bask in the glory of America's first National Monument, Devil's Tower? Well, consider this your personal invitation to join me, Craig, on an epic hike around this historically significant behemoth. We'll take a trip down the mesmerizing Red Beds trail, which is a stunning red sandstone masterpiece from the Spearfish formation. Here, we'll uncover the deep spiritual significance of this site, known as Bear Lodge to the Native Americans, and even touch on the adrenaline-pumping rock climbing opportunities the Tower offers.
For those of you who enjoy technology just as much as nature, we'll delve into a comparison between a Garmin GPS and a phone GPS in tracking trails and distances. With this unique blend of adventure, history, and nature, you can expect to be captivated throughout the hike. So, lace up your hiking boots, prepare your senses, and let's embark on a journey to marvel at the breathtaking beauty of the Devil's Tower together. Whether you're a seasoned hiking enthusiast or you simply appreciate the allure of a good hike, this journey promises a virtual getaway like no other. Buckle up and let's hit the trails!
Hey folks, good morning. This is Craig of Natural Medical, my last big adventure before I go back to work. I've been off for a whole week exploring the Nebraska, south Dakota, and now back in Northeast Wyoming here and I'm at Devil's Tower. I'm at Devil's Tower National Monument, the very first National Monument. It was set aside through the Antiquities Act 1906. Several attempts were made to preserve it, protect it, but it wasn't until the Antiquities Act was passed that it was set aside by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. So let's go check it out.
Speaker 1:
So I'm sitting at the Visitor Center at Devil's Tower National Monument taking a look at this beautiful view on a gorgeous October day and pretty amazing view. Wow, totally cool. I think I'll go ahead and take a hike around, hey, so I'm taking a hike on the red beds. You can see Devil's Tower behind me, or Bear Lodge, if you prefer. The view out here is just beautiful. It's a great day for a hike If you look over this way. Look at that view over there Beautiful. The National Monument is not very big it's only about 1,300 acres but it protects the tower itself and the surrounding forest and prairies Definitely cool.
Speaker 1:
The trail keeps going this way. That's the way I'm going to go. Keep following me down the trail, alright. I'm about a half mile into the trail and I'm going to overlook here, overlooking the Belafouche River and I believe down there, which is only open seasonally it's open like April 1st, I think, to October the 15th, so it's coming to a close for the season is the Belafouche campground. Would it be cool to camp out here?
Speaker 1:
The trail continues this way. This is the way I'm going to go. This is where you come in to the park along the entrance road. Here I'm about a little bit over a third of the way done on this trail. It's a really nice day to be out here hiking, not too cold and not too hot.
Speaker 1:
Another great view of Devil's Tower right there. Wow, isn't that gorgeous. You can see the moon up there even. I'm definitely glad I took this trail. It's the red. What is it called the red? I don't know. I don't know what it's called. It's been a nice trail. I'm going to early and join it. You don't get days like that all that often, at least in my experience. I'm gonna enjoy it anyways. Hope you're enjoying this trip. If you are, thumbs up so that YouTube knows you're proving my content and that they will get out to other people. Thanks, yeah, you can still see the tower behind me. And, man, what a beautiful view, beautiful day, just really loving this. Hope you are, too, almost halfway done with the trail, but I just want to share this beautiful view with you.
Speaker 1:
Here's the Benifoose river. Looks like foreshay but, as I can pronounce, foosh and I was looking for beds and I was looking for red. I didn't find it till now. So these are red beds. I believe I read in the visitor's center this red kind of sandstone looking stuff bullet sandstone is from the spearfish formation pretty freaking cool. That's why this trail is called the red beds. It's because of that, red beds which I'm fixing to go over. So cool, cool.
Speaker 1:
I'm on the red beds of the red bed trail and I can imagine when it's wet, which probably not very often because this is semi-arid terrain here this is mucky mucky, but right now it's dry and the sun is out and it's feeling beautiful. There's the entrance of the park over there and the entrance road where vehicles are going down. Oops, gotta go this way to continue on the red beds. I'm at a cross point here. This trail right here connects a jointer ridge. It just came from this direction through this meadow with the ponderosa pines and the grass beautiful and then I'm going to continue on red beds this way, and of course, there's bear lodge or the devil's uh, devil's tower. Wow, this is a not a very huge park it's only 1400 acres but, wow, lots of cool things to explore here. I just had time to do this trail today, so I've got to get back down to Laramie so I can be at work tomorrow, so all good. Anyhoo, onward and upward.
Speaker 1:
Of course, the top of Devil's Tower is up there. That's very cool. I'm not a rock climber but a lot of people are and I love this place to come climbing. Also very important place for Native American spiritual beliefs. They actually believe that a bear made all those scratches on this and that people were trapped on the top and they were. There's actually a graphic inside of them shooting arrows down this giant bear, which is why some of the Native Americans call it Bear Lodge. Interesting, it's a small national monument, but there's a lot of things to explore here.
Speaker 1:
Wish I had more time. Okay, you can't see Devil's Tower behind me, but you can see some other parts of the park over there and I'm similar to grassy field is, or grassy fields is not part of the park, but you can kind of see the outlines of the park from the I guess, the West, no, sorry, the east side right here. Pretty neat. Oh, I just came up this little ridge here from the meadow below or the whatever you want to call it. Now I gotta keep going up here on top of this ridge and get back to the Visturist Cinder. Let's go, forgive my painting, but came up the little hill or ridge line. Another gorgeous view of Devil's Tower. So cool, so neat. Oh, definitely like it. Okay, I think I made it up the ridge. A little more climbing to do, but, man, gorgeous views of Devil's Tower right here.
Speaker 1:
According to all trails says I've got about 20 more minutes of hiking. I'm at 2.42 miles. That should bring me back out to where I started, to the Visor Center. I'm working forward. Beautiful views of Devil's Tower. I don't know what's going on up here. Looks like they've got a weather station or some kind of monitoring station powered by solar power right up there. Interesting, almost there. Definitely lots of variety.
Speaker 1:
Devil's Tower, partially visible through the forest. Here you went from a large open forest into more of a closed one. Here it's like mostly ponderosa pine. This most stuff makes them for good measure like it might be an oak right here coming up, but you don't say to me of those, these type of forests. But still pretty cool. It looks like I'm kind of wide oak. Wouldn't thought that would be here anyway, getting close to the end, y'all yay.
Speaker 1:
I made it back to the Visor Center area, did the entire trail and red beds took me a little bit over an hour. Coming back to the trailhead almost it's one hour 20 minutes approximately, and right now I'm at 2.94 miles on my Garmin GPS watch and all trails is 3.11. So it's a little bit longer per phone GPS than a Garmin GPS. I tooka couple side trails to do some nice little overlooks. Hey, I hope you've enjoyed today's trip through Northeastern Wyoming at Devil's Tower National Monument. If you did give me that thumbs up, think about subscribing to the channel. If you have any questions or comments, drop them below. Till next time y'all. See y'all on the trail.