More notes from the tower
21/06/16 05:28
Yesterday turned out to be a delightful day. It began with something that I rarely do. I slept in. I don’t think that I have been short of sleep lately, but I make it a practice to turn off my alarm when we are vacationing, even if for only one day. After I wrote my daily blog, I crawled back into bed, intending to rest for a little while until the sun rose a bit higher and then go out to photograph Devil’s Tower in the sunrise. I slept through most of the sunrise and by the time I rose it was full daylight.
After breakfast, we began our walk around the tower, pausing whenever it seemed like there was a fresh angle for a photograph. I changed lenses several times and too time to frame my shots. We had arrived before the busloads of tourists began to be on the mountain so were walking with just a few other early birds and there was plenty of space between the groups. The eagles were soaring high in the sky and there were enough small clouds to make the sky an interesting backdrop for pictures.
As we walked we came across a doe who was obviously used to the crowds of people. She watched us a bit, but wasn’t uncomfortable with our staying to the path as she grazed on the bits of grass growing nearby. When a hiker approached going around the tower in the opposite direction, she moved a bit farther from the trail, but afforded us all a good look at her without running off to a more distant location.
The path around the tower is paved and it is a very easy walk, with just a couple of places that are a bit steep, so the walk could hardly be termed as a workout. One runner, who may have been training for even more strenuous runs, passed us twice as we ambled around the tower.
One has to be a bit careful when taking the walk, because the temptation is to continually look up. We could hear some of the banter of the rock climbers on the tower and our eyes naturally drifted to where they were rappelling down the face of the tower. One climber had a bright blue shirt on that made him easy to spot against the rock. Looking up while walking, however, is a bit disorienting and one has to remind oneself to also pay attention to the direction of the path and more mundane things on the ground.
We didn’t expect to see climbers on the tower. It is a more popular climbing destination at other times of the year. Between March and July some of the popular climbing routes are closed by park officials to protect nesting sites of prairie and peregrine falcons. The falcons themselves are pretty good at defending their nests and climbers who would defy the rules might find themselves endangered by the birds. However, the park service is good about enforcing the rules and climbers respect them.
There is another issue, however, that is more difficult for those who seek to climb the tower. June is a month of religious observances of many tribes. In addition to Lakota people, ceremonies are held by Kiowa, Assiniboine, Mandan, Arapaho, Crow and Cheyenne members. As we walked, we noticed tobacco ties that were much larger than we typically see and in colors different than we are used to. I’m sure that they had to do with ceremonies of other tribes or perhaps ceremonies with which we are unfamiliar. For the practitioners of these native religions, someone climbing on their sacred tower is offensive, a bit akin to someone attempting to scale the face of a cathedral. It shows a lack of respect.
For many years, there has been a voluntary climbing closure during the month of June. Climbers are asked to find other nearby rock faces for their climbing out of respect for Native American culture. This has resulted in a decrease in the number of climbers on the tower in June. Some estimate that about 80% of climbers respect the voluntary closure. The closure, however, is not mandatory and some choose to climb despite the request that they not do so.
The sharing of the tower for a wide variety of different purposes is a challenge for National Park Service employees as well as for members of groups that use the tower. The rock climbers are probably not as disruptive to ceremonies as are the busloads of tourists who appear to take their “selfies” with the tower in the background.
By 9:30 when we got into our pickup to go back down from the parking lot, the area between the visitor’s center and the tower was crammed with people so tightly that I’m sure they were getting in each other’s pictures. As we sipped our coffee before departing, I noticed that the busses don’t stop long enough for the tourists to walk all the way around the tower, so it is likely that those wanting to perform ceremonies could get away from the crowds by simply walking to the other side of the tower. The people that we observed walking were, like us, sticking to the trail and remaining relatively quiet out of respect for those who might be observing ceremonies.
It has been a long time since I watched the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but if I am remembering accurately, there is a scene where there is a long line of cars filled with people fleeing away from the tower. Back when I first watched the movie, I thought that the movie makers didn’t understand the location of the tower. I remember visiting as a child when there were hardly any other visitors. It is in a location that is far enough off of the major highways and there aren’t that many people in the county. However, I was struck that the numbers of tourists and cars have gone up significantly since my childhood. Maybe there really are that many people hanging out around the tower.
Our visit was brief. We were home by the middle of the afternoon. This trip was a 24-hour adventure. It was, however a true vacation and we returned refreshed and glad we had shared the experience.