Minneapolis/Yellowstone trip '09: Leg 6 Mount Rushmore / Black Hills

From Devil’s Tower we roll out past the Badlands to Rapid City, South Dakota. Rapid City/Mount Rushmore/Black Hills. What I was not sure of is that Rapid City is the nearest city to Mount Rushmore and Mount Rushmore is one of many mountains in the very large Black Hills. Large and I should add very pretty Black Hills. We stayed at a place called Hart Ranch, once a very large working ranch, now a very nice and complete RV resort. Rushmore was about 20 miles away so we headed out early the next morning. In retrospect early is the absolute correct thing to do. We arrived about 9:00a and parking was O.K. and crowds were tolerable, but by the time we left parking was an issue and the crowds were unbearable. Can’t believe how many people come here, from all over the U.S. and the world. But Rushmore, regardless of the crowds, is a real must see. When we first drove up and caught a view of the Presidents, I was actually a little disappointed, maybe even let down. I had this place so built up and had seen so many pictures I was really prepared to be blown away, and I wasn’t, but I had no idea how far away we were. Once we got up close I was blown away and then some. Wow, awesome. The history, the back ground, the patriotism, the beauty, and the specialness of this monument. Very cool. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking. Opening shot is the walk of flags, all 50 state's flags are flying.

Here are all the boys together, George, Tom, Ted, and Abe. Very impressive. Following, each feller up close and personal:

George W.

Teddy R. and Mr. Jefferson

And, of course, Honest Abe.

We are big fans of Teddy, so here he is again with Abe. If you can see the tiny little round, well half round, holes between these guys, that is where they dynamited granite away to expose the figures. Mind boggling to think of the people that created this monument. And below, check out the detail of Roosevelt's glasses:

Here are just some other angles/views:

This one was taken several miles away, very different view. When you are up close it looks like these guys are the mountain, certainly at the top, but a long step back shows otherwise.

When we left the Monument we decided to tour the country side. We ended up on a very narrow and very twisty road through the adjacent forest to the monument. Highly forested, lots of pines, surprisingly beautiful country side, we enjoyed the journey very much. This road also had some pretty exciting tunnels, one of which was only 9 feet wide! One of the tunnels, as you come out of the tunnel, the opening perfectly frames the Presidents off in the distance. No place to stop, no way to take a decent picture, at least safely.

Another side trip was to drive up to Spearfish, the first western city in South Dakota and then drive through Spearfish Canyon, actually older than the Grand Canyon and then on up to Deadwood. Spearfish canyon is a gorgeous drive, we didn't take very many pics because the weather was iffy and overcast most of the trip.

Part of Spearfish Canyon.

I have to mention one thing we most definitely did not like about the area and that was the brash commercialization. More bill boards than I think I have ever seen in one place and more darn gimmicks to haul in the tourists. There were dinosaur parks, animal parks, cave parks, you-name-it parks (some might have been O.K. but the overall impression is they are after your wallet). For us, all the constant barrage of bill boards and the blatant commercialization definitely detracted, but you learn to tune it out and dwell on the really cool stuff.

Speaking of really cool stuff, a trip to the area would not be complete without seeing Crazy Horse. This is the project started in 1948 and still underway- in fact just barely underway. The monument is humongous, or as Ed Sullivan would have said really really big! In my opinion it will never be completed, but the idea is good and the magnitude of it should be seen. We did cheat a bit, we just didn’t feel like coughing up another $20 bucks to spend a couple of minutes looking at something that wasn’t even near done, so we hauled the big lens out and shot it from the highway.

Here is the entrance from the highway, which gives you the silhouette of what Crazy Horse is eventually supposed to look like. Here are a couple of shots of the work in progress: