For such a large and sparsely populated state, Wyoming boasts a surprising number of national firsts. It’s home to:
- The first National Monument, Devils Tower (1906)
- The first National Park, Yellowstone (1872)
- And the first National Forest, Shoshone National Forest (1891)
That last one winds through Native lands and hugs the Shoshone River, which we followed as it meandered through breathtaking forest terrain.
Our first stop in Wyoming was Devils Tower, just a short drive from the South Dakota border. Like many people, all I really knew about it came from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I’ll never forget the scene where Richard Dreyfus obsessively builds a replica of the Tower in his kitchen using dirt and mud — sculpting those vertical lines while his family watches in bewilderment.
And sure enough, as we approached it in real life, it looked just like that.
At a distance, the rock appears to have smooth vertical grooves — but up close, they become massive columns, some with gaping gaps where huge sections have broken off.
Devils Tower is technically a butte, and it’s enormous — a towering monolith rising out of the wide-open prairie. It’s also a place of deep spiritual significance for Native peoples, who have passed down several legends about its formation. I loved hearing the legends, but I also enjoyed digging into the science.
Depending on the time of day or season, the sunlight paints the rock in shifting hues — greenish-yellow, brown, even black. Geologically, it’s still somewhat of a mystery. We do know it’s made of igneous rock — magma that pushed its way toward the surface in what’s called an intrusion formation. But Devils Tower is unique: its columns are about 15 feet wide, larger than those in any other similar formation on Earth.
Even more impressive? Though the Tower is millions of years old, there are no recorded instances of a column breaking or falling. That’s pretty amazing.
Parking at the monument itself was tough, so we did what we could — drove around it, took close-up shots from the RV, and parked farther away. I still think Gary captured some great photos.
As we left, we were treated to a field full of prairie dogs, popping in and out of their burrows like popcorn — a perfect sendoff from a place that was both iconic and unexpectedly fascinating.