Devils Tower

During yesterday's 295-mile drive, I kept finding myself humming the same five musical notes: Re, Mi, Do, Do, So.... By the end of the day, I was able to tie the music to its place: Devils Tower National Monument. Devils Tower enjoys a prominent place in America's History, as our first National Monument. It's also earned a place in American pop culture as the alien landing pad in the climax of Steven Speilberg's 1977 classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Devils Tower stands nearly 1,300 feet above the surrounding terrain, which features brillant red sandstone cliffs above the Belle Fourche River. Our stop for the night was the Devils Tower KOA, which sits adjacent to the monument.

See! We aren't kidding. Devils Tower was just outside our Imax window. With such an up close and personal view, we didn't even venture up to the Visitors Center. Instead, we shot about a zillion pictures of the monolith in all kinds of light. Overnight, I listened closely to hear those familiar five tones and see the colorful flashes of light, but we heard and saw nothing. No close encounters for us this time. But, this certainly was a fun and interesting stop.

Along the way to Devils Tower, we coordinated a brief meet-up with our friends Dwight and Sally and their traveling companions. This foursome of road warriors is on their first-ever RV trip. They left Kansas City a few days ago and have already visited Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower. They were headed west on I-90 toward Cody as we were headed east, so we coordinated a rest stop along the highway. They shared many stories of their adventures and misadventures, but they all have smiles on their faces. Thanks, guys, for making the time to stop and say hello. We wish you a safe, fun and trouble-free journey to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and home.

With a quick and relatively easy travel day, we made our way to South Dakota today. We looking forward to hooking up with family here soon and checking out those famous faces. Stay tuned.