Mt. Rushmore, The Needles Hwy & Crazy Horse

From the moment in school that I learned about Mt. Rushmore I have wanted to see it in person and today I experienced it first-hand. The ride up to Mt. Rushmore is quite impressive with all those black hills and unique rock formations. (Hank was incensed that we had to pay to park the car-thought our Sr. Pass for National Parks should have covered it. ) In any case as we were walking up to the Visitors, Center, etc. there were those huge granite sculptures with the morning sun on the president's faces. It's so impressive! If I gush too much so be it! We rented those audio wands which explain much about Mt. Rushmore as we made our way around the Park. We even got to see a mtn. goat along the trail, but if the truth be known, I suspect that goat is either well trained or somehow tethered to the rocks. We spent probably two hours at the site and enjoyed every minute of it. I had hoped that we'd make it back to see the lighting ceremony in the evening, but we just ran out of time.

After leaving Mt. Rushmore we drove to the nearby town of Keystone where we found some lunch and then began the slow but scenic drive through numerous tunnels carved out of the rock on the sides of the mtns-some of which are one way only-into Custer State Park. Only had to give the right-of-way to one buffalo-see his photo! Then we drove onto the Needles Hwy-incredible scenery and rock formations. We stopped numerous times to get photos of the Cathedral Spires and others. With our new camera Hank made a few stops to get photos of thistles, clover, etc. Also made a stop at Sylvan Lake as the scene was just so idyllic. When we got back out to the main highway it was into the evening, but because of where it is in the time zone it doesn't get dark until after 9 Pm in the summer so we decided to go see Crazy Horse! What an undertaking by basically one family-very impressive. We sure won't live to see that project done, and it's hard to imagine that our children will! We saw the film about the sculptor and his dream and the dream of his Indian friend for a statue to honor the red men. There was some Lakota Indian dancing going on on the viewing patio and was watched for awhile, but as the sun got lower it began to get chilly, so we called it a day. We were told that there would be a laser light show at 9:30 PM, but we'd had a full day and decided not to stick around for it.