Devil's Lake State Park's East Bluff Trail winds up the bluff to most of the well-known rock formations in the park. Devil's Doorway is just off the main trail, and has a very short loop trail for the best viewing of the formation.
Most trails in the park take advantage of the natural rock formations in place, or rocks stacked to create stairs to make the climb safer especially in slippery weather. These narrow trails take hikers very close to the edge of the bluff, and in some cases, if the visitor is daring, right to the drop-off, where a slip could mean a fall of hundreds of feet.
This narrow flat trail gives the best view of Devil's Doorway, and has a small buffer of rock between the path and the steep drop-off. This didn't stop a young man from jogging down the trail, and then taking two short jumps to the rock at the edge. It was drizzling, and the rocks were a bit slippery, we were certain he would slide right off the edge; luckily he did not, and just stood on the edge enjoying the view.
You can see the platform he was standing on, and how there is nothing to stop his fall for well over a hundred feet at this point. I was amazed at how many people simply decided to get a better view by climbing on the rocks without regard to what was (or wasn't) below them. Some of the areas of the trail down were challenging enough for most hikers, without the danger of falling hundreds of feet to the bottom of the bluff.
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