I took the detour off I-90 with my fingers crossed that it would even be open.
This was January 2021. You could not assume anything was open, and I had no idea what I was going to be up against on access. I lucked out.
I was driving west for the first time, on my way to Montana, where I was going to station myself for a month and get ready for everything that came after. I did not know it at the time, but this stop set the tone for the whole thing: discovery and wonder — in myself, in my equipment, and in what was around me.
My first solo hike
That is what this was. My first one.
There were a few cars in the lot when I pulled in. The visitor center was closed, but they had left the stand out for stamping your National Parks Passport, which felt like the park saying we are still here to anybody who showed up anyway.
I pulled out my pack, my trekking poles, water and a snack.
And then I discovered the trail was paved.
I went through the motions anyway. I wanted to test my process — what I reached for, what I had actually remembered, how long it took me to get from parked to walking. None of that effort was wasted.
Figuring out the van
This is the part that turned out to matter more than the hike.
What goes in the rooftop box and what stays in the van where I can reach it is a question I kept re-answering the entire trip. It changed and changed again. But the thing I settled on early, and never moved off, was that I always wanted to be able to get to a quick hike. Boots, poles, a pack, water — those live where you can reach them.
Devils Tower is where I learned that, on a mile and a third of pavement.
The climbers
I watched people making their way up it while I walked.
It is an incredible thing to see. The Tower stands 867 feet from base to summit, and 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, and the columns are so regular they look built rather than formed.
What actually stayed with me
Here is the thing I did not expect.
Walking the trail, I started seeing cloth tied to the trees. Bundles of it hanging in the pines along the path.
Then I read about what they were.
More than two dozen tribes are connected to this place, including the Arapaho, Crow, Cheyenne, Shoshone and Lakota. The names they have for it translate as Bear Lodge, Bear’s Tipi, Tree Rock, Gray Horn Butte.
Those cloths and bundles are prayer offerings. People leave them here now, this year, as part of a relationship with this place that has never stopped.
The Park Service asks you not to touch them, not to disturb them, and not to photograph them. That is worth knowing before you walk the trail rather than after.
And there is a second thing worth knowing. Every June, climbers are asked not to climb. It is voluntary — nobody stops you — and it has been in place since 1996, because June is when a great deal of traditional ceremony happens here. About 85% of climbers honor it. I find that number quietly moving. Nobody made them.
I came for a hike and a stamp. What I got was my first real look at the fact that these places are not just scenery with a parking lot attached — they are somebody’s church, and always were.
That turned out to be the thing I loved most by the end of the trip. It started here.
Basics
Where: Devils Tower, Wyoming. It is a detour off I-90, and it is worth it.
Entry: Charged per private vehicle, with lower rates for motorcycles and for anyone on foot or bike. Check the current rates before you go. Children under 16 free. The America the Beautiful pass covers it.
It was the first. Theodore Roosevelt designated Devils Tower the first national monument in the country in 1906, under the brand-new Antiquities Act. Every national monument after it followed this one.
The size of it: 867 feet from base to summit, and 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River.
The Tower Trail: 1.3 miles, paved, starting at the visitor center parking lot and looping the base.
Parking: at the base of the Tower, and the lot is small.
Bathrooms: pit toilets off the parking lot.
Prayer cloths and bundles: you will see them in the trees along the trail. Do not touch, disturb or photograph them.
The June climbing closure: voluntary, in place since 1996, and honored by about 85% of climbers. If you are coming to climb, know about it first.
Pets
Dogs are not allowed on any trail here, or in any building. That includes the Tower Trail.
On a leash no longer than six feet they can be in the parking areas, on the roadways, in the picnic areas and in the campground. That is the whole of it.
So this is one to plan around rather than improvise.
Traveling with a dog? Where I Would Actually Take My Dog is every park on this site, sorted by whether she can do the activities you came for.
Additional Resources
Devils Tower National Monument — the official National Park Service site.
Fees, hours and access change. Check with the National Park Service before you go — details here were verified in September 2026.