Mt. Rushmore
After driving for hours straight through rolling hills and prairie on Rt-25 & smaller 2-lane roads, we arrived in one of the larger towns in the Black Hills, Custer. We opted to skip going to the campground right away so we could go straight through to see Mt. Rushmore, a cultural and national icon that we didn’t want to miss .
Mt. Rushmore is much, much more developed after all these years than I could have guessed and you will find more detailed information online than I can ever provide here, but it was a great way to cap off the drive. Upon arriving in early afternoon, it started to rain…alot. There was also low cloud cover/fog so upon arriving, we really could not see much, but we stayed until things cleared enough to get a good look.
After taking in the mountain (hidden by clouds) and getting more and more wet, we opted to get inside the Visitors Center. The movie inside the center is very well done and shows the visitor details you just don’t see from the standing below the carvings, as well as the history of the work that went into this national memorial. Some of the facts highlighted in the Visitors Center and movie were new to me, so I appreciated all the history. We learned about the massive scale of the construction project and detailed survey work done to get the project off the ground, the number of buildings that were on TOP of Mr. Rushmore (for construction) but are now gone, that most of the rock shaping was actually done by carefully using explosives and that yes, there really is a hidden chamber behind President Lincoln’s head (brow). This chamber isn’t in many photos and isn’t accessible to the public, it’s called the Hall of Records.
Slowly, the fog started to clear but wasn’t done yet.
So we waited in the rain for more clearing and finally there it was, clear enough to see.
After an hour or so in the rain at the memorial and after driving for hours, the fun meter was pegged. We knew we still had a drive to get to our campground and were motivated to get the camp set before dark but hunger had attacked so we headed to Custer to find food. We found a great place with microbrews and sated our hunger, getting food and time to do some window shopping before we headed out to set-up camp. Another attraction in this area (near Custer State Park and Mr. Rushmore) that I regretted missing is the peaceful and iconic Sylvan Lake. The lake and its familiar rock formations were featured prominently in the movie, National Treasure, Book of Secrets. We also skipped the historic attractions at Sturgis and Deadwood.
Wind Cave National Park- Elk Mountain Campground
I took this picture as we drove into Elk Mountain Campground at Wind Cave National Park that afternoon. Needless to say, I was floored to see wild Buffalo right there at the park, but we would see them at much closer range and more often over the next few days that we camped here. This is somewhere we will go back to, without a doubt. One of the oldest National Parks in the US, it has one of the most genetically pure herds of wild Buffalo in the US and has one of the largest cave systems too. These caves (specifically the Wind Cave aperture -breathing earth) were part of what made (makes) the Black Hills sacred to the Lakota tribe. We went and observed that specific site on the cave tour, but chose not to photograph it out of respect. However, there’s plenty of pictures of the actual site online if you want to look it up. Best thing would be to take a trip to the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial and Wind Cave tour for yourelves, I don’t think you’ll regret it.
We took an in-depth tour of the cave system…..next post. For now, here’s a few more pics:
Slowing down and staying at Wind Cave National Park was sooo worth it. Besides the Mt. Rushmore experience on the first day, we really didn’t go back north to Custer or some of the other tourist attractions because we spent our time touring Wind Cave and checking out the stunning and aptly named Mammoth Site of Hots Springs, in Hot Springs SD. But we’ll bring all that to you in the next post, as there’s just too much to discuss in this post. So, next post will be about our tour of Wind Cave AND the Mammoth Site experience, which I enjoyed far more than I thought I would. Here’s a few more photo of Wind Cave National Park and our camp:
1st: If you are reading this, thank you….May the 4th be with you!
If you had not already figured it out by now, this blog/website is about traveling (wherever we decide) slowly with kids, training to run again, donkey racing/training and whatever cooking has inspired me for the week I’m writing. I write for this website in between bouts of parenting, taking care of the various animals that inhabit our tiny ranch, the work I’ve decided to do for the day to modernize/upkeep the house/property and the work I have to put into my cabana boy duties. So, it keeps me busy but I’m really glad to be writing again after my brief hiatus. During that lull, the website lost followers and views. But it does take work and effort to muster the time, creativity and imagination needed to create the outlines then the writing needed to put out consistent content. Even on a tiny website like mine, content is king…no content no readers no stats. This is my 10th year of blogging…I’m still learning.
Next week: Our visit to Wind Cave and the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD.
Wanna see other stories we’ve written for this series about Road Tripping with kids? Hit these links:
Roadtripping and Camping In The Western US With Kids-1
Roadtripping and Camping In The West With Kids (Zion)-2
Roadtripping and Camping In The West With Kids- The Road To Dinosaur-3
Roadtripping And Camping With Kids- Dinosaur National Monument- 4
Roadtripping and Tent Camping In the West W/Kids- Dinosaur To Cheyenne-(5)
Roadtripping and Camping In The West W/ Kids: “Hell On Wheels” Rodeo- 6
Roadtripping And Camping In The West With Kids: Cheyenne To The Black Hills- (7)
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