Mechanical Weathering, Beautiful! - Devil's Lake State Park Area Visitor's Guide

Snow Covered Talus at Devil's Lake State Park

It’s not uncommon for visitors to Devil’s Lake to think that all of this fallen rock means that the whole park was once a quarry. While there were quarries within the park borders at one time, the fallen rock you see is natural & called talus.

The talus fields were created by a form of natural weathering called frost or ice “wedging”. This happens when water seeps into cracks, then expands when it freezes. The expansion widens the cracks and eventually, the rocks break off the high ledges and conspire with gravity to create the talus fields. While this type of weathering is going on right now, much of what you see at Devil’s Lake was created a long time ago when the last glacier was wrapped around the north and eastern side of the park from the north shore (Where the Nature Center sits today.) to Roznos Meadow.

Autumn at Devil's Doorway — Autumn at Devil’s Doorway

BTW, this is the same process that created Devil’s Doorway, Balanced Rock, and Cleo’s Needle along with the many other rock formations we love to visit today!

#TalusTuesday Anyone?

You can learn many more interesting facts and tidbits in our website’s Discovery Section!

Derrick Mayoleth

For nearly 2 decades the Skillet Creek blog has focused on 3 main goals; To inspire you to visit and explore the Devil’s Lake region, to help you get the most your visit by sharing tips, events, and other helpful information. Lastly to advocate for our environment & wildlife and talk about how we can keep our natural areas amazing now and into the future! That last goal can sometimes cause controversy, but it’s the only way we can accomplish the first two. – Derrick Mayoleth, Owner.