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

Although strong winds and reportedly baseball-sized hail raged in the area for less than 30 minutes, locals are already calling it one of the worst storms they have ever experienced there.

“We have 20 broken windows that we’re working on right now,” said Tim Davis, owner of the Devils Tower Trading Post. “All kinds of downed trees, a lot of debris, and there’s probably six inches of debris on the outside right now.”

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

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

In another thread, a visitor to Devils Tower posted a video of himself driving away with several spiderweb-like cracks in his windshield caused by the hail.

Extensive damage

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

“Many trees have fallen and branches are lying everywhere,” she said. “All of our tipis are damaged and unusable, and some of our cabins are unusable due to broken windows and damaged screen doors.”

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

“It looked like snow,” she said. “It still looks like snow is covering the ground this morning.”

Much repair work is still needed to repair the damage caused by the short but severe storm, says campground manager Andrea Wood.

“All the roofs are ruined and most of the windows are broken,” she said, adding that she is also a poll worker in Crook County. “So it’s a little crazy today.”

“The teepees are completely destroyed, and the worst part was that the hail was so big it was knee-deep, so most of the grass will die if it is not destroyed,” Wood added. “Most of the trees are badly damaged, if they are still standing.”

Just as devastating as the damage itself was the fear and threat that guests and employees felt during the incident, she said.

“It was terrible for our staff who were on site at the time of the accident,” said Wood. “Our gift shop and cafe were flooded. Fortunately, there were no injuries.”

Mitchell and Davis said several people lost windshields and mirrors on their RVs and vehicles. Shards of glass mixed with the hail covered the ground.

“Some of the tour buses in our parking lot have lost their rear windows,” Davis said. “Some have lost all their mirrors and taillights, and my manager has lost his front windshield. There’s broken glass all over the highway.”

The hailstorm was so severe that, according to Davis, even the metal parts of the traffic lights were damaged.

“The traffic light above has the lampshades, and a couple of them blew out in our parking lot,” he said. “They’re made of pretty big sheet metal. It was unreal.”

Hardly any warning

The National Weather Service Office in Rapid City, South Dakota, issued a severe weather warning for the Devils Tower area at 5:25 p.m. on Monday. That was the only warning residents and visitors received before the storms reached them.

“There’s no standard for these storms,” ​​said Don Day, a meteorologist with Cowboy State Daily. “You don’t always get a warning in advance, whether it’s a half hour or 15 minutes. It’s a fluid situation and depends on what’s happening.”

Day said the first official reports of Monday’s storm showed it moving across northeast Wyoming at about 25 mph, with wind gusts as high as 54 mph and hailstones up to 1.5 inches in diameter and up to 1 foot high in some places.

“That doesn’t mean that was the strongest wind gust or the deepest hail,” he said. “That’s what has been measured and reported so far.”

Although the damage was significant, Day said, the storm itself was nothing unusual, especially this time of year.

“When thunderstorms brew and come together, they can form and intensify very quickly,” he said. “This storm wasn’t terribly fast, but fast enough to move up and down at a pretty 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 the Devils Tower/Black Hills KOA were open Tuesday.

“We’re open today,” Davis said. “We just cleaned all the mud out of the front door and the buses are coming. Since the monument is still closed, they need a place to look at Devils Tower, buy souvenirs and use the restroom. So we’re open.”

“The only thing that’s closed at KOA is our cafe,” Mitchell said. “My manager, Andrea Wood, is out there right now with a chainsaw taking care of the trees, and we’re all trying to get everything cleaned up. All hands on deck.”

The extent of the damage to the monument and its infrastructure is still being determined, Devils Tower Chief Ranger Matt Roland told Cowboy State Daily.

“Some large trees have fallen near the visitor center, and one tree has fallen and hit the ranger station. We are currently focusing on the front country areas and key visitor access points.”

Roland said the severe storm downed dozens of trees and blocked access to the monument’s campgrounds and employee housing. As of Tuesday morning, he counted at least 30 downed trees on the Joyner Ridge Trail and had not yet fully assessed the damage to the Tower Trail.

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

“We want the Tower Trail cleared and accessible to hikers because that’s our most popular trail,” he said. “We know a lot of people drive 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 have a better assessment of the extent of trail damage.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at [email protected].