7 Things Geologists Just Found Out About Wyoming's Devils Tower (A Ranger Explains)

📕 Stay Found, my field guide for anyone who heads outdoors: what to carry, what to leave on the kitchen table, and what to do in the first hour if somebody doesn't come back → https://stayfoundbook.com Devils Tower sways a little more than once a second, and no climber has ever felt it. Here are seven things geologists and park scientists have found out about Wyoming's tower, from a garden on the summit to a lightning strike that moved a rock the size of a washing machine. Six come with measurements. The seventh is the oldest question about the place, and it is still open. I'm Cliff Hollis. Thirty-two seasons as a ranger, the last fifteen running search and rescue. Everything here comes from Park Service pages and reports, the U.S. Geological Survey and published research. WHAT THEY FOUND, THE TOOL AND WHAT IT MEANS IF YOU VISIT 7. A garden grows on the summit. Tool: two botanists who climb went up three times in one season and counted 53 kinds of plants. If you visit: climbers are asked to step on rock up top, not on plants or soil. 6. Three clocks gave three ages. Tool: potassium-argon (about 40.5 million years), fission tracks (about 53 million) and a step-heating laser (49.04 million). If you visit: when you hear "about 50 million years," the laser date is the strongest. 5. Lightning moves the rock. Tool: a Park Service geology assessment after a 2007 strike shifted a washing-machine-size rock above the Tower Trail. If you visit: at the first thunder, the park says the safest place is your vehicle. 4. No one has ever seen a big column fall. Tool: the boulder field itself, more than 13 acres of broken columns. If you visit: test each boulder before you trust it, keep three points of contact, never jump from rock to rock. 3. The summit may be the top of the original lava. Tool: a heat model and a single rock from the boulder field. If you visit: it is one rock, so treat it as a strong lead, not a verdict. 2. Every second or so, the tower sways. Tool: a seismometer left on the summit overnight, under a bucket (GSA Today, 2026). If you visit: the sway is at most half a micrometer, and the study's lead says it carries no risk he knows of. 1. Nobody can tell you for sure how Devils Tower was born. Tool: well over a century of geology, from volcanic neck to laccolith to crater. If you visit: the Park Service itself lists more than one possible origin. Stay found, folks. #DevilsTower #ParkRanger #Geology