Having only visited the monument for a couple of hours on an Escapees Escapade HOP back in 2013, I've always wanted to return and stay a day or two at the tower. We selected the local KOA for our stay. You can walk to the visitors center from the campground, but you will do some serious elevation climbing to get there. We chose to drive and park in overflow. We're here during preseason, so nothing's all that busy though tour buses are passing through on a routine basis.
The campground does fill during the weekend. We saw a lot of people who are dropping by for the night though. They stop, set up their rig, take a few pictures of the tower, go back in their rig, get up the next morning, take a few more pictures of the tower, then leave. I guess that met their bucket list!
Anyway, pictures here are from the campground, then from the paved trail that circles the base of the tower. The remaining are from the longer Red Beds trail (including more elevation to climb). You see the Red Beds from the picture taking through the rear window of our trailer.
The paved trail appears wheel chair/power chair accessible. There are some "speed bumps" on the paved trail that seem to be there to funnel water runoff. If you're here for a short visit - say that 2-hour bus tour stop - take a walk along the paved trail. You won't regret it.
Until we spent our second summer at Voyageurs Natl Park with a geologist as our visitor's center naturalist, I'd never given geology much thought. After that summer, I've always regretted not taking an intro class to geology. The Voyageurs experience helped me appreciate geology, and I now appreciate the geology of any area we visit.
The tower is interesting because most geologists agree on what the tower is -
a magma plug. They just don't agree on what happened around it. From the literature there's apparently four ideas on what happened around the plug. Two are based on it being a plug of a volcano. The other two are based on a plug underneath the crust and not part of a volcano. We'll probably never know. But however it occurred, it makes an impression on you as you arrive. It's easy to see why native americans consider it sacred.
Hopefully, you're able to take a few minutes and enjoy the pictures. If you haven't been to the tower, go. You won't regret the stopover. David
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