Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial

Another busy day!

This morning began with laundry. And of course I forgot to grab Ben’s clothes from yesterday’s incident to wash. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow?

After Ben was done with work, we ventured out into the world again. The campground is pretty peaceful, so it’s a big change going into town. This time we went to see Mount Rushmore. (This was Nick’s pick of stops for the trip.) It wasn’t too far from our campground.

Entry is free, although they charge $10 (for cars, etc.) to park. They did have some larger spots available for RVs, although I can’t imagine driving on some of the turns!

It was neat to see. We took the Presidential Trail (a lot of stairs but did have different platforms to stop at) and the Sculptor’s Studio and saw it from a few different angles. We could see black scorch marks on some of the trees, so there must have been a fire there at some point. I think Ben’s favorite part was the glasses on Roosevelt. There are several different viewing points if you move over to the studio or trail. It was kind of neat to see the faces from different angles.

The boys thought it would be much bigger, since in all the pictures it looks huge because they have zoomed in a lot when taking the photo.

Crazy Horse memorial was about a half hour away, so we decided to stop there as well. Entrance here was $30/car. It was neat to see, although if you wanted to see it closer, it was at least another $125 (I think per person). It will look amazing when it is done. It is much bigger than Mount Rushmore. I do wish there was another angle that your $30 admission could show you. It was pretty much just the profile, which is neat, but I wish we could have seen at least the front as well to see more details.

We once again admired the crazy scenery. There were gigantic rocks just jutting forth from the mountain side. It was amazing and awe provoking. (At least to us adults. The kids were not as impressed with scenery.)

Our trip out ended with us stopping to get some groceries at a small grocery store in Hill City and going home to make dinner.

~Sarah