Mt. Rushmore

After arriving near Rapid City, SD, the boys both caught colds and the weather became very windy and chilly for a couple of days. Fortunately, the weather and the boys' colds improved for a beautiful day at this national landmark.

The massive sculpture is so famous and most definitely squarely in the middle of a well beaten path as travel adventures go. We were pleased to have followed in the footsteps of so many visitors when we reviewed the exhibits and short trail in front of the mountain.

Just one aside note: although we have an 'America the Beautiful' National Parks annual pass, this provides no benefit at this monument. Admission to the monument is free; HOWEVER, the parking fee is $10. There is no other visible place to park other than the rather large parking garage complex. The parking pass is good for the remainder of the calendar year, so you can return as much as you like after purchasing the pass. The garage staff makes careful note of your license plate, so there's no 'cheating' to transfer the parking pass to anyone else!

Back to the monument itself and a few interesting facts from the history and construction:

• the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was 58 yrs old when the project began


• the project took over twice as long and cost almost twice as much as originally estimated (14 years and a little less than $1 million)


• the project stopped short of the complete design due to the death of the sculptor (his son worked a bit more, but enthusiasm and funding waned)

The boys are standing with the artist's last working model, 1/12 scale of the mountain work (each inch on the model scales to a full foot on the mountain).

Our favorite photo taken from the short trail toward the mountain includes a bit of fall color.

We couldn't resist having the boys try to pose stoically with the presidents. Here you see six home educated Republicans!


As the trail returns to the main visitor's center, a display of authentic Indian tepees is available for perusal. The ranger explained that Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Indian tribes were all actually using dialectic variations of the same word.


The next day we had a good morning of studies and took the afternoon to tour around the Black Hills countryside in search of some fall colors and see if we could get a glimpse of Crazy Horse. While there were mostly pine trees, the hills were beautiful and there was a splash of color now and then.

A little south and west of the Mount Rushmore we saw a large hill with a lot of pieces missing and something of a face at the top. The scale is enormous. The concept is great with Crazy Horse riding into the wind, pointing forward and his long hair waving behind. Looking at that face peeking out of the raw mountain, we thought they had a long way to go. Cory looked at all that work and announced, "I'm hungry, really I am". Rather than explore the mountain, we drove on south to Custer. We viewed the local fare, but in the end, we went with the safe pick and Cory's favorite Subway.

After supper, we took the scenic route through Custer State Park to get back to Mount Rushmore for the evening lighting of the monument and it was well worth the trip.

We saw these two residents grazing along the bike path and felt happy that we didn't meet them on the bikes. There were a few more bison and a couple of pronghorns. We saw dozens of white tail and mule deer either next to or in the road. Three large groups of wild turkeys crossed our path and we tried to give them a gobble, but all we got back was a dirty look as if to say "tourists".

The road itself was a joyful ride for an old highway engineer. Filled with 15 mph curves and a bunch of artistic timber bridges some of which curved and looped under themselves. There were also several 12 foot wide one lane tunnels that had a little sign to the right that said, "Sound horn as you enter tunnel". Fortunately, we didn't meet anyone from the other direction and we didn't take the road that had only 8 foot wide tunnels!

We arrived in good time for the evening program and joined a small crowd of folks in the seating area. The night was beautifully clear and the stars were spectacular overhead as we waited.
A ranger led a terrific program and introduced a short Discovery video that highlighted the lives of the Mt. Rushmore presidents.

As the film concluded, the lights gradually brightened the faces above the stage area.

A few moments later, the ranger asked all veterans and active military to join her on stage. The audience enthusiastically provided a standing ovation for them. Several worked with the ranger to take down the flag after we all sang the national anthem.

Now, the evening was already a wonderful evening, but we had one huge surprise! Before the program, we thought we recognized a young man sprinting up the auditorium steps. After the program, we were able to confirm that the young man was a friend from our old stomping grounds in Corpus Christi - and there was another friend along with him! Tim and Austin have been selected as interns for a national communications conference. They tour the country as part of a team and lead thousands of young people in seminars with the organization Communicators for Christ. The funny thing was, they were only at Mt. Rushmore by happenstance as their bus had broken down near Rapid City. While awaiting repairs, the tour sponsors had treated the team to a trip to the mountain - quite coincidentally on the same night we chose to attend! We were thrilled to see them, thrilled to know of their selection and thrilled with the unexpected surprise!

We returned to the RV park and rose to see this amazing sunrise the next morning! Then, we watched the weather turn windy, rainy and cold - as had been forecast. With winds gusting up to 60 mph, we were glad to have the flexibility to wait for better traveling weather!