Over the years, we have meandered over a lot of monuments and seen a lot of sites.

In studying up on this, I ran myself down a rabbit hole trying to figure out why the Washington Monument—which is referred to in its own press as “the National Monument” is not, in fact, a national monument. Apparently it is because the law says monuments are LANDS protected for their natural, historical, or scientific significance. Ergo, the National Monument is just a monument. Or maybe it’s a site. Whatever. I’m also perplexed why Stonewall in New York and the site of the Springfield race riot of 1908 are national monuments but South Dakota’s Badlands and the sand dunes at Nags Head are not. From what I could tell, it’s mostly a size thing. Whatever, again. Moving on.

For the sake of brevity, I will limit this post on our family’s favorite monuments to items on the oh-so-citable Wikipedia list of monuments. When he was little, our kid was enamored of Chimney Rock, but only because its Indian name was Elk Penis, which he found absolutely hilarious.

Montana won over my husband with Pompey’s Pillar, which involves a lot of stairs but is next to a very pretty stretch of the Yellowstone River. We took photos of William Clark’s name carved in the rock, and the hubs bought a hat.

And personally, I do not think I would be the person I am if I had not spent several years sitting at stoplights and staring at the ridgeline of the San Gabriel Mountains, and the Angeles Crest Highway is a very pretty drive. My love ends there, however. I am not generally a nature gal, and I remember feeling let down by the tiny bit of the Silver Moccasin Trail that I hiked—despite the fairy tale name, it looked like pretty much every other trail I’d ever hiked. (I was similarly annoyed by Ruby Falls. I was not suckered in by Jewel Cave or Enchanted Rock. The Grand Prismatic Spring, on the other hand, totally lives up to the hype.)

But the big winner for our family is Devil’s Tower. It’s in a movie, it’s weird to look at, it’s fun and easy to walk around, and there are millions of prairie dogs. Would visit again; highly recommend to anyone looking for a road trip with a satisfying destination.