Across Covid America - Tour of National Parks 2020 - Day 9

Day 9

13035 mileage

6:53 A.M.

8979 steps

$25 All Access Pass savings

Trunk is packed early for a long day of driving. But first we need a Movie Buff stop. How could you come this far west and not visit the nation's first national monument? Especially when the monument is as cool as Devil's Tower?

This view featured heavily in the 1977 Spielberg masterpiece, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Watching Roy Neary played by Richard Dreyfuss struggle to come to terms with his mental overload regarding this vision stuck with a little nine year old kid in his PJs. Aliens were among us, and they had some really COOL ships! 

Of course the visitor's center wasn't open, but we could still walk around the one mile paved perimeter path. I think I danced a few times thinking about scenes from the movie. Look at this picture and you can see the section where the two main characters have to climb over to witness the alien landing strip built on the other side of the 1,200 foot igneous intrusion. 

I can now say without a doubt that there is NOT a landing strip on the far side of Devil's Tower. 

While we were here I video chatted with my sister and asked her to play a game of Guess Where Gary Is. She hates this game because it could be anywhere from the top of Mt. Vesuvius to the dykes of Holland. She never guesses correctly. 

Yet, when I turned the phone to show here what I was looking at, she started freaking out. It was awesome hearing her scream, "You're at Devil's Tower? I hate you!" We both liked the movie. 

We were able to find a local store to fill my magnet needs and then hopped in the car for the long drive over to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Here's what most of the drive looked like until we reached the mountains. 

Coming over the mountains was definitely a change from where just were. I mean it was SNOWING people! In June even. 

We were smarter this time and put on everything we owned in order to go out to dinner at the Snake River Brewery. Here we are sporting the masks that G made.