The Story Behind The Photo...

Have you ever stood in the shadow of a legend?

I found myself at the base of Devils Tower, or Mato Tipila (Bear Lodge), as the Lakota have known it for generations. The air was crisp and smelled of pine needles and damp earth. Above me, the massive phonolite columns rose like a cathedral built by giants, their vertical lines stretching nearly nine hundred feet into the Wyoming sky. It is said that these deep grooves are the claw marks of a giant bear, etched into the stone as he tried to reach seven young girls who were lifted to safety by the Great Spirit.

Photographing such a monolith is a challenge of scale and light. The sun was dipping low, hidden behind the dense branches of a ponderosa pine to my left. I wanted to capture the texture of the rock, the way the late afternoon light turned the grey stone into a warm, living tapestry of orange and lichen-green. But the sun was fighting me, creating a high-contrast scene that threatened to leave the tower in darkness.

I shifted my position, crouching low among the rough scree of fallen boulders at the base. I waited until the sun burst through the pine needles, creating a perfect starburst that balanced the weight of the mountain.

In that moment, the stone seemed to breathe. It wasn’t just a geological oddity of cooled magma. It was a fortress, a sanctuary, and a silent keeper of stories that are older than the trees, older than the country, and as enduring as the stars the seven sisters became.