We started out
early this morning in fog and drizzle.
As we drove North to Belle Fourche, SD then West to the Devil’s Tower
National Monument in Eastern Wyoming the sun soon came out.
Towering 867
feet above the valley floor the monolith is visible for many miles along the
Belle Fourche River. It has been a
landmark and navigational fix for General Custer’s Cavalry, and wagon trains
headed west. Richard Dreyfus in
Close Encounters of the Third Kind memorialized this place in the 70’s as the
place where we (Earth people) met aliens.
We watched several climbers headed up the south face this morning. Not to be outdone, Joy wanted to head
up also but only got about 10 feet up the wall. See the proof below.
One of the things we have loved to do is find a special place for a
picnic lunch and today was no exception. A baby prairie dog came near to see what might be for lunch.
After leaving
the Park we headed back down toward Sundance, WY – picturesque little town that
it is. Joy was disappointed not to
see Robert Redford living there. It
does share a bit of history though with the Sundance Kid.
After his
release from the Sundance Jail in 1888, Harry Longabaugh acquired
the moniker the Sundance Kid,
which entered the popular imagination in the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid, which won several Academy Awards including Best Original
Screenplay. Robert Redford, who
portrayed Longabaugh in the movie, later named the Sundance Ski
Resort, near Provo, Utah, and the Sundance Film
Festival after this character. A sign visible from I-90 proclaims that
Sundance is "where the kid got his name."
