Devil's Tower

[ksbryan0]

Three-frame HDR of Devil's Tower, in the Black Hills near Hulett, WY. This unique formation rises 1267 feet from the terrain below. The greenish hue looks odd, but that is how it looks in the afternoon sun.

[Shyanni]

A very strange formation, ksbryan0. I remember seeing this in the movie Encounter of the Third Kind, where a couple of people climbed it to see a UFO landing on top. It certainly doesn't look like something the average Joe would be able to climb. Looks like beautiful country around it though, great for hiking or trail riding. Is it park land?

[ksbryan0]

It is a real oddity in the area. Teddy Roosevelt declared it a National Monument in 1906 and there are about 1300 acres that are accessible to the public. Regarding climbing the tower, Wikipedia says, " Today there are many established and documented climbing routes covering every side of the tower, ascending the various vertical cracks and columns of the rock. The difficulty of these routes range from relatively easy to some of the hardest in the world."

[carlogalliani]

beatiful landscape

[Intrepid Berkeley Explorer]

I definitely remember this monolith from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". It seemed scary back then. Your lovely pictures convincingly prove that I'm never going to try a climb. Not photographing it might have been a mistake, taking a route back in 1991 that put me within range.

[ksbryan0]

Thanks Carlo & David. I never saw Close Encounters...guess I will have to check it out and see how Hollywood made it look!

[dllaliberte]

Very nice scenery! I got to see that rock formation years ago.

[Photo-John]

Nice photos! That green hue is probably lichen on the rock.

[SmartWombat]

Very good work on the HDR, a technique easily overdone IMO.

[ksbryan0]

Thanks guys. Paul, I appreciate the HDR comment, I know what you mean. It is fairly easy to go overboard with Photomatix Pro, but I do find it pretty helpful for images like this when I can't get to the ideal position or when my timing is not good and the sun isn't where I want it!

[mattb]

Cool shot and I agree on your use of HDR being just enough but not too much. I might not have immediately recognized it as HDR if nobody brought it up. That's a good thing IMO!
And Close Encounters was a really good movie. You should definitely check it out.
I bet those climbing routes are really cool and being on top must be awesome!