Little Devil's Tower, Custer State Park 2009

 Little Devil's Tower trail in Custer State Park is the best hike that Wayne and I have been on so far. When we were in Custer State Park in 2009 it was recommended to us by the cashier at the gift shop when we told her we were looking for a hike that would give us a view of the Cathedral Spires. She told us it was a "fairly easy" hike and the best view of the spires so we breezed right by the information on the board at the trailhead and started walking. The first 1/2 mile meandered through some trees alongside a nice brook with a very gradual incline. I thought, hey, no problem! This is great! But after that first half mile you take the #4 trail to the left and things change drastically with  the trail becoming so steep and so rocky that we were slowed down quite a bit. However, we were undeterred, thinking this had to be temporary, because the trail was supposed to be "fairly easy", right?




 

 It did level out a bit, and we came to this big crack between the rocks. I stopped to catch my breath and take a few pictures and thought the worst was behind us and we'd be seeing those spires at any moment. I was struggling to breathe because I was dealing with some as yet undiagnosed allergy-related asthma. This trip opened my eyes and when we got home I went to the doctor and now am the proud owner of an inhaler!  During our hike we noticed that park officials had set out pheromone traps in an effort to stop the spread of the pine beetle.  There were piles of cut down trees everywhere that the beetles had been lured to. Check to make sure this trail is open before heading out, because apparently they closed it after we left to continue their campaign against this pest.

 But after passing through the crevice...the steep climb began again, and we followed the blue diamonds or paint on the trees and kept going up, and up, and up! We were starting to get a little worried because the sky was clouding up and we didn't want to be on that trail if it started to rain, but we pushed on!




Until finally we came around a bend and saw something that looked vaguely peak-like! But we still weren't done, so we made that final push and with quivering legs we clambered up to the top of Little Devil's Tower, still following blue paint, this time right on the rock itself.

It was worth the 1.5 mile climb, most of it nearly vertical. We had only passed one other couple during our hike and we had the top of the world all to ourselves. We spent a good 1/2 hour just resting and enjoying the views which included not only the Cathedral Spires but everything you could see for miles in every direction. I only wish the light had been better in order to capture how absolutely gorgeous it was up there!

 

We were up so high that a tour helicopter came up right alongside us and we all waved to each other. This helicopter I got the picture of came later and didn't come right by us but went straight to the Cathedral Spires instead. I thought it was a pretty neat shot with the rain clouds though. We didn't get an opportunity to hike this trail again when we were at Custer briefly last year, but if we ever get over there again I'm definitely going to head up with my camera gear at a better time of day and get some photos! Anybody in the area should make this hike a priority, it's moderately strenuous, but only 3 miles round trip and worth every step!