Mt. Rushmore

I finished the last post with a description of much of the drive. The drive from Wyoming to South Dakota was the most surprising to me and filled with drastic changes in the terrain. Beautiful and long.

We reached Keystone, SD a bit after night fall on July 6. We had reservations at a cabin called Powder House. Planning the trip, I figured we'd have had enough of hotel rooms so a cabin would be a welcome break. It was quaint and quiet, but we didn't sit outside much so we could have gotten a much cheaper hotel room. However, the cabin was beautiful, clean and everything a hotel room would be with a porch swing.

We set out the next morning to see Mt. Rushmore. We stopped in Keystone for breakfast and drove past all the themed hotels and shops, but didn't visit any.   Dan was a bit miffed at Mt. Rushmore because we had gotten an annual pass for the National Parks which meant entry to the parks was free for us (since we visited 4 it was well worth it). However, Mt. Rushmore contracts with a private company for parking so we still had to pay $16 to park, but entry to the "park" was free. A stinky technicality. The whole area is infused with a strange dichotomy of national reverence and distrust of the establishment. There was much to learn about the acquisition of the land and carving of the mountains and while the story was the same everywhere there were some definite differences in HOW it was told depending on where you were (inside the park vs. crazy horse being the most notable, but each newspaper, coupon guide, shop and restaurant seemed to choose a side and tell their version).

Inside the Mt. Rushmore park we stopped and got the audio tour (a baton with numbered buttons and a speaker — you punch the number depending on where you are standing and it explains something. We had similar ones in Carlsbad Caverns, but Mt. Rushmore didn't have child oriented talks like Carlsbad). We also picked up Lea's Junior Ranger book for her third badge.

We headed up the Avenue of Flags and looked at each state's flag. We found the flags for the states we had visited and of course Texas. We stopped in the Theater and walked on the Presidential Trail. Listening the whole way. In the Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center (named for the sculptor's son) we saw a movie narrated by Tom Brokaw, describing the carving process and the selection of the presidents — for the record it is George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. People walking around would say things like "I wonder who that second guy is." Hopefully they read all the plaques! The trail circle which took us under the mountain and through the sculptor's studio and to different views of the monument. Around the first bend was Lakota, Nakota and Dakota Heritage Village which showed how Native Americans lived with examples of teepees, bowls, tools and buffalo hides to touch and check out.

We headed back to Powder House for lunch and swam in the "heated pool" — of course you must remember that in the North this just means ice doesn't form. I went in with Lea and it was cold! It was about 78 - 80 degrees and that's cold for a pool. We met people from Minnesota. One man said "Uff da" as he got up out of a chair and I said "May I ask if you're from Minnesota?"  He said, "Yes, why?"   I said "No one else says 'Uff da'!"   Its a popular weekend spot for Minnesota families so they said we'd meet a lot of Minnesotans.

We had a bit of time after swimming so we were going to do something in the tourist areas. There were several choices from panning for gold to a zip line. Lea saw a sign for Glo-in-the-dark putt putt and asked about it hourly. We decided to let Lea choose and that meant Putz N Glo. We had a blast. It was such a break from the sight seeing. No plaques to read, nothing to learn, just good old fashioned fun — with black light and da-glo paint. They also had a wheel at a few holes to spin to add some challenge like "putt with your eyes closed" or "let your opponent take your first shot." That was extra fun. We might have to make our own wheel if we go to play putt putt around here.

Then we headed to dinner in Hill City where we found a nice place with patio where we could watch a chainsaw wood carver. The weather was beautiful.

We debated how to spend our one night in the area:  Mt. Rushmore Lighting Ceremony OR Laser Show at Crazy Horse. Well, since we'd seen Mt. Rushmore and we hadn't been to Crazy Horse we decided to do the laser show. We're so glad we did. Crazy Horse is a monument in progress, its been in progress for over 60 years ago. Started by a native American chief named Red Cloud and carved by one man Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski who walked up a wooden ladder carrying his tools and loads of rock, using refurbished equipment, but the project to this day has never taken government money. We saw a video telling us this story. It was very inspirational and even though it seems there has been so little progress on the carving in 66 years when Mt. Rushmore was completed in 14 -- its the story of the underdog and you really start rooting for the Ziolkowski family (the film said of ten children, 8 still work for the Crazy Horse Memorial). We wandered around the museum and admired the crafts. At sundown we headed to the viewing deck where it was quite chilly. We found a spot where they have actual rocks from the carving blasts (for a donation) so we got some rocks from Crazy Horse. Then the laser show started and even Lea (without prompting) went and hugged Daddy and said "I'm so glad we did this!" and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It was very moving. My favorite part was when they played "Proud to be an American" but showed Native American heros instead of presidents, reminding us that it was not only the elected folks who were the fathers of our country. It was all presented very well and I didn't find it too heavy handed, though Dan's family, especially his dad had such reverence for Native American culture perhaps we were the target audience.

We headed home to our cabin where the power had been out twice thanks to the construction next door. Slept well and headed toward Nebraska. We didn't want to back track to go into town for a restaurant so we thought we'd find something along the way, but there was NOTHING. We had a gas station breakfast — heated up pre-packaged biscuits and hot dogs. Not our best meal. We had seen a billboard for Rhubarb Wine previously (but didn't get a chance to stop and get some), but I found some at this gas station (different brand) so I got it to share with my mom. We had it when we got back and the lesson learned is if you buy wine at a gas station, it probably tastes like gasoline! It was awful.

See those mountains over there? We just drove through them and it was frightening. More hair pin turns, hearing the transmission strain against the steep climbs, 100 ft. drop offs at the edge of the highway and multiple spots where in the winter the major US highway is just closed for months. Not my idea of a dream home. However, it was nice to drive through once. It was more mountainous than any other part of our trip I believe.

Lea was set and ready to "watch for falling rocks"

Powder House cabins & restaurant.

Cabin at the top of the hill.

Mt. Rushmore (from the parking lot!) It was smaller than I imagined driving up. Impressive once we got out of the car and walked toward it, but from the parking lot, a lot smaller than I thought.

Inside the park ready to hike around the boardwalk

Getting closer and closer.

Lea listening to the audio tour. We learned loads of tidbits about each president, native Americans and the carving process.

Cool view of George from a crevice along the path.

Native American exhibit. Teepees, tools and more.

A look up some fine noses.

Family fun on the Mt. Rushmore trail.

Lea's third and final Junior Ranger badge. Junior Ranger extraordinaire.

Glow in the dark Putt Putt!

Putt Putt. They had this wheel to spin before some holes to add challenges like: "putt with eyes closed" or "move an opponent's ball." That was really fun!

Putz N Glo - not kidding that was the name. When Dan made reference to he didn't want to be a Putz they had no idea what he was talking about. We found that extra funny. http://www.putznglo.com/

Family fun at the glow in the dark putt putt.

Our favorite hole with glow in the dark Homer! There were different decades from the '50s to the '90s.

Dinner in Hill City on our way to Crazy Horse Monument.

Tickling at the table. I can't take these two anywhere!

Our view from the patio at the Hill City Grille.

From the patio where we had dinner, we could see the chainsaw art (it was a franchise, they had one in Keystone too, same name). We didn't get to stop by because we wanted to have enough time at Crazy Horse to look around before the laser show.

Lea at Crazy Horse waiting for the Laser show.

This was the view from the deck at the Crazy Horse monument. The arrows show what has been carved (the face) and what will be carved next - the horse's head and the finger pointing). Progress has been very slow, doesn't seem they've made much headway in 20 years, but after the presentation you really believe in the project and the people. We were more moved by the half carved rock than the completed Mt. Rushmore.

Crazy Horse himself: the scale model of what the mountain will look like one day.