We had a great day today here in South Dakota. I’m was told that South Dakota is flat and ugly, but we are staying on the west side in the Black Hills and it’s absolutely beautiful. The weather has been very nice, but it’s gotten pretty windy tonight. The motorhome is rocking as I sit here and write this and a nice neighbor brought our chairs back that blew half way across the campground.
Today our journey started out visiting Mt. Rushmore. We hiked the President’s Trail and got to see the amazing sculpture pretty close up. The monument took twelve years to build, the design changed nine times and was never completed. The sculptor planned on carving the full upper bodies of the four presidents. At the bookstore, one of the original workers was there answering questions, it was pretty cool.
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| Steve & Kathy at the entrance to Mt. Rushmore |
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| Mt. Rushmore |
Next, we headed about 15 miles to the Crazy Horse Monument. At first we were pretty disappointed that they wanted $20 admission, but after we found out that the sculpture was being built by donations only with no public funding, we didn’t mind too much.
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| How the completed monument will look |
This sculpture will take years to complete, the original sculptor (a polish immigrant) died and his family is working to complete it.
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| Crazy Horse Monument under construction |
The highlight of our day was our drive through Custer State Park on the Needle Highway. What an exciting drive! This road winds through the park with twists and turns and several one lane tunnels blasted out of the rock, barely big enough for a car.
We were in awe of the rock formations and beautiful scenery. We saw mountain goats, bison, deer, prong horn sheep and wild turkeys. The drive was about 40 miles long, but took us over two hours to drive because of the road conditions and the many switchback turns.
Well, it’s time to call it a night. We break camp in the morning and head east. We hope to be in Minnesota by Saturday. Until then, take care…..
Steve and Kathy
No Bad Days……
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