South Dakota - Mt. Rushmore and More

Day #12 [July 28] found us 'on the road again'.  We said good-bye to Wyoming when we crossed over the state line into South Dakota at 1:16 in the afternoon.  At first the terrain was mostly prairie land with lots of cattle grazing, but as soon as we entered the Black Hills National Forest the landscape changed to mountains covered with pine trees and steep drop offs.  

We pulled into the Holiday Inn in Custer S.D. in early afternoon and unloaded our luggage, then were back on the road destined for Mt. Rushmore, near Keystone, South Dakota. The sky looked threatening.

Before Mt. Rushmore, however, we saw Crazy Horse Memorial - a mountain carving of an Indian Lakota warrior named, Crazy Horse. Korczak Ziolkowski gained recognition as a sculptor at the 1939 World's Fair, and attracted the attention of Chief Henry Standing Bear who invited him to the Black Hills to carve Crazy Horse with a mission of preserving the culture, tradition and living heritage of all North American Indians.

Sculpting began in 1948 [seven years after Mt. Rushmore was completed]. Korczak had worked as an assistant to Gutzon Borglum at Mt. Rushmore in 1939.  Korczak dedicated the rest of his life to the sculpture.  He spent several decades alone, drilling and blasting the 563-foot-tall likeness of the Lakota leader from the top of Thunderhead Mountain. Following his death in 1982 work on the memorial progressed with oversight from his family.  It is still incomplete and a work in progress - 72 years later.  When finished it will depict Crazy Horse riding a horse, pointing to his tribal land.  It will be 641 feet long and 563 feet high, and the second tallest statue in the world.

[Internet photo]

Driving on to Mt. Rushmore  

Entering the park [below].  The foreboding sky told us rain was imminent, but we were not to be deterred. 

Mt. Rushmore National Memorial is a massive sculpture carved into Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1941 under the direction of Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln.  The roughly 60-ft. high granite faces depict U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The Avenue of Flags was initially established as part of the celebration of the United States' Bicentennial in 1976.  56 flags represent the 50 states, one district, three territories, and two commonwealths of the U.S.A.

Jerry and I had our picture taken in front of Michigan's flag.

As suspected, the skies opened up and dumped buckets of rain!  We made a mad dash for the cafeteria/snack bar which was a good place to get a quick bite to tide us over until dinner. By the time we finished eating, the rain stopped and the sun popped back out again. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the sign stating that Thomas Jefferson is credited for America's first ice cream recipe.  We ate a lot of ice cream on our trip, so I wanted to give credit where it was due.  ;-)

Back outside for more Mt. Rushmore pictures.  It was awesome to see these sculptures in person.

After we left Mt. Rushmore we stopped at a pizzeria in town for dinner.  Then we made our trek back to the motel for the night.  The nice thing about traveling with family is you don't have to curl your hair everyday!  ;-)

to be continued...