Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Day 13- Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park

What a whirlwind of a day! We were at Mt Rushmore just after the gates opened today. We had an idea that morning light would flood onto the faces and sure enough, it did. We had a problem with Abe throwing a shadow on Teddy for a while but before we left about 10:00, the shadow was gone. We took a leisurely walk on the Presidential trail, a 6/10th of a mile loop that gives you a slightly different look to the mountain, takes you to the studio where Gutzon Borglum worked and gives you a view of the forest that has grown up around the mountain since the completion of work. It was a great help to have parking garages in place instead of having to walk a great distance from parking lots. I loved the way they have designed the approach with the flags lining the approach to the viewing terrace. It’s a must do if you’re in the area and the $11.00 fee gives you a year’s access to the site. We did not get back to the night program because we were just too tired after our very full day. Our next stop was the Crazy Horse Memorial, a work in progress since 1947. The work is carried on by the family of Korczak Ziolkowski (core JOCK Jewel CUFF ski ). The face measures 90 feet and when complete, it will be the largest free standing sculpture in the world. You’d have to be the judge on if it’s worth the $10.00 per person admission. There are two movies, a huge museum, on site native craftspeople and a wonderful restaurant. All proceeds go into the work on the mountain and absolutely no federal money has been used or will be used. Work this season will begin on Crazy Horse’s wrist and hand resting atop the horse’s mane. After lunch, we headed to Custer State Park, home to 1300 wild and freely roaming buffalo. We hadn’t been in the park 15 minutes when we saw our first bull resting in the shade beside the road. Then it was more than an hour till the next. We drove the 67 mile Wilderness Loop Road slowly because it weaves it’s way through the Black Hills and turns back on itself a number of times as it climbs to over 6,000 feet. During our drive, we saw Pronghorn Antelope, prairie dogs and burros which are not native to the park but seem to collect quite a crowd begging for handouts. We continued on to the Iron Mountain Road which led us through three of the six tunnels carved through solid rock. One of these tunnels gave us a surprise view of Mt Rushmore, in the distance, through the opening. Just before we left the park to return to our camper, we came across a small herd of bachelor bulls. We waited while a couple went into a draw for a drink of the French Creek that winds it’s way through the park and then came to within 75 feet of the truck. It was a magnificent site to see these huge animals munching on the lush grasses that grow throughout the park. Sadly, we spent so much time in the park, we didn’t get to the Badlands so I’ll have to
put that back on the ol’ bucket list for another time. Tom
orrow, we head to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

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