Devils Tower Closes After Baseball-Sized Hail Shatters Windows, Knocks Down Trees

Devils Tower National Monument was closed Tuesday morning after a severe thunderstorm that brought heavy hail that swept through northeast Wyoming on Monday shattering windows and knocking down trees.

High winds and hail reportedly as large as baseballs pummeled the area for less than 30 minutes, but locals are already calling it one of the worst storms they've ever seen there.

"We had 20 broken windows that we're working on right now," said Tim Davis, the owner of Devils Tower Trading Post. "All kinds of broken trees, lots of debris, and there's probably 6 inches (piled up) outside right now."

Davis said he had not spoken to anyone at Devils Tower National Monument but he expects it will reopen Wednesday, if not sooner.

No one at Devils Tower National Monument was available to comment at the time of publication. But the nation’s first national monument announced on its Facebook page Tuesday that it “will be closed until further notice due to severe storm damage.”

In another thread, a Devils Tower visitor posted a video driving away with several spider-web impact breaks to the windshield from the hail.

Extensive Damage

Bethany Mitchell, who works at the front desk of the Devils Tower/Black Hills KOA, said the storm reached them around 6:05 p.m. Monday. By 6:30, it had moved on but had caused a lot of destruction at the campground.

"A lot of trees have blown down, and there are branches everywhere," she said. "All of our teepees are damaged and non-usable, and some of our cabins are unusable with busted-out windows and damaged screen doors."

Mitchell said the storm started with a few gusts of strong wind, followed by rain. Once the golf-ball-sized hail arrived, the campground looked like a winter whiteout.

"It looked like snow," she said. "It still looks like there's snow covering the ground this morning."

There’s a lot of repair work that needs to be done to fix what the short, but intense, storm caused, said campground manager Andrea Wood.

“Every roof is ruined and most windows are broken,” she said, adding that she’s also an election judge in Crook County, “so it’s a little crazy today.”

“The teepees are completely destroyed, and worst of all, it was baseball-sized hail about knee deep, so most of the grass is going to die if it wasn’t destroyed,” Wood added. “Most trees are badly damaged, if they are still standing.”

As impactful as the damage was how scared and threatened the guests and employees felt while it was happening, she said.

“It was terrifying for our employees where were on site at the time it hit,” Wood said. “Our gift shop and café flooded. Luckily, there were no injuries.”

Mitchell and Davis said several people lost windshields and mirrors on the campers and vehicles. Pieces of glass, mixed in with the hail, covered the ground.

"A few of the tour (buses) in our parking lot lost their back windows," Davis said. "Some people have lost all their mirrors and taillights, and my manager lost his front window. There's glass all over the highway right now."

The hailstorm was so intense that Davis said even the metal components of the traffic lights were damaged.

"The traffic light up above has the shades for the lights, and a bunch of them are blown out in our parking lot," he said. "They're made of a pretty good size tin. It was unreal."

Not Much Warning

The National Weather Service Office in Rapid City, South Dakota, issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the Devils Tower region at 5:25 p.m. Monday. That's all the warning residents and visitors received before the onslaught reached them.

"There's no standard for these storms," said Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day. "You're not going to get a half-hour or 15-minute warning every time. It's a fluid situation that depends on what's going on."

Day said the first official reports of Monday’s storm showed it moving around 25 mph across northeast Wyoming. Wind gusts of up to 54 mph and hailstones up to 1.5 inches in diameter were recorded, and in some places they accumulated up to a foot deep.

"That's not to say that was the highest wind gust or the deepest hail," he said. "That's what's been measured and reported at this time."

While the damage was severe, Day said the storm itself was nothing unusual, especially at this time of year.

"When thunderstorms build and come together, they can form and intensify very quickly," he said. "This storm wasn't terribly fast, but fast enough to come in and out at a fairly decent pace. It's just that time of year."

Broken But Open

Despite the damage and the temporary closure of Devils Tower National Monument, the Devils Tower Trading Post and Devils Tower/Black Hills KOA were open Tuesday.

"We are open today," said Davis. "We just got all the mud out of the front door, and the buses are coming in. Since the monument is still closed, they need a place to go and look at Devils Tower, buy souvenirs and use the restroom. So, we'll be open."

"The only thing that's closed at KOA is our café," said Mitchell. "My manager, Andrea Wood, is outside with a chainsaw dealing with the tress right now, and we're all trying to get things cleaned up. It's all hands on deck."

Just how much damage was done to the monument and its infrastructure is still being assesed, Devils Tower Chief Ranger Matt Roland told Cowboy State Daily.

“Some large trees came down by the visitor center, and one tree fell and hit the ranger station. We’re concentrating on front-country and main visitor access areas points right now.”

Roland said the severe storm toppled dozens of trees, blocking vehicle access in and out of the monument’s campgrounds and employee housing. As of Tuesday morning, he counted at least 30 downed trees on the Joyner Ridge Trail and hadn’t fully assessed the damage to the Tower Trail.

Other National Park Service units were dispatched to Devils Tower to assist Roland and his team remove fallen trees and clear the visitor access areas to reopen the monument. He said the monument should reopen by Friday, and possibly sooner.

“We want to have the Tower Trail cleared and available to hike, because that's our most popular trail,” he said. “We know a lot of people drive up to the parking lot, look at the tower, take pictures, and leave, but we want to make sure our main trail is safe and open. We can’t say when Devils Tower will reopen until I can get a better handle on just how badly the trails are damaged.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.