The sun was still laying back admiring the moon and the slowly awakening landscape when we found our way into Devils Tower Park; after a few confusing google maps attempts to get to the right lodge tucked away a little further back on a dirt road we found the Devils Tower Lodge - the start to our epic climbing day.
Our guide met us out front stepping out of his simple but effective van home with a beaming smile and a cup of still steaming coffee. The air carried a little weight ,as the temperatures remained quite low until midmorning- running a solid half day shiver for me, as we started getting fitted and signing the usual safety forms. Shortly after we were hiking our way up and over boulders until we hit the point of roping in - a class of hike that wasn't necessarily difficult physically for us but had very serious consequences for a misstep or loose rock. Easy to figure considering there were enormous cliffs to our immediate right - it made for a really fun ascent to the actual climbing. Then we climbed with the sun- each of us seemingly slowly rising up the rock face with each minute passing. Soon after we begun it warmed up finally and we understood quickly why we needed to start so early because as if just a moment later it was wildly hot. Our guide was awesome, and we really can't recommend the service enough, Jessi adapted the routes to our skill and comfort level while making it a fun and challenging day. We finished with a solid 200ft+ rappel that was so iconic. Like most people, we are scared of heights -both my wife and I, but we love climbing and found the rappel to be an awesome experience. Jessi was really solid at being 1. just a really interesting and rad human and 2. incredibly professional explaining how the gear/ prep worked and how safe we were ( relatively speaking of course) . The whole Devils Tower Lodge Climbing team was awesome and next time we look forward to camping and climbing with them!
We had originally booked a half day climb but next time we're out there we will be seeking the full tower climb and Jessi through the Lodge. Once we finished we grabbed a fantastic burger lunch from The Devils tower Gulch!
We camped at the Devils Tower Tipi Camping Juliana was so kind and welcoming- the tents were super cool and the property even had some trails to enjoy. Admittedly, after climbing and eating the day became quite hot. At this point we had driven hundreds of hours and didn't want to drive the extra couple hours to the swimming adventures nearby so we found reprieve from the hot sun in the shade of the tent and just relaxed enjoying the beauty of the landscape.
Happy Travels -
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