Devil's Tower National Monument, Wyoming

Sure, moviegoers know Wyoming's Devil's Tower as the place where mankind met friendly aliens in Stephen Spielburg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

But nothing prepares you for the real thing: the 1300-foot chunk of granite rising out of Wyoming badlands is bigger than even the widest of wide-screen attractions.

It's a sacred site to Crow and Cheyenne peoples; once you see it (say on the Tower Trail, which circles the rock’s base) you will understand why. More