Below The Stone – (Listen)

There is a hidden world that exists under the talus of Devil’s Lake State Park. You can listen to the meltwater rush through unseen corridors and over hidden waterfalls. The water eventually breaks out into small rivulets on the surface or reaches the lake from below causing unique currents and upwellings along the shore. In this short video, you can listen to the water flowing under the rocks yesterday at Devil’s Lake. 

The large boulder fields that surround Devil’s Lake are often taken as a sign that the park used to be a quarry, and while there were 2 quarries at the park in the past, these large “talus” fields are natural. Repeated freezing and thawing at the end of the last glaciation and of course, gravity, caused the rock to break and roll down the hills as you see today. And yes, sometimes they still fall!

In summer, cool air from the top of the bluffs descends through these hidden spaces and fills the deep grottos on Grottos Trail creating a cool escape from the summer heat. Even fire travels below the rock making it hard to put out once it gets started. In the last 10 years at least two fires have smoldered for days under the rocks where fire crews could do little more, than monitor their progress and control “escapes”. 

Wildlife also uses the talus fields as not only homes but as paths of safe travel protected from the reach of predators and the summer crowds.

Sadly, in our “Leave No Trace” park, the deep holes between the boulders have become popular garbage pits, especially along the Tumbled Rocks trail. Once there, the mix of cans, fishing gear, bottles, and bags can be nearly impossible to remove.