Mt. Rushmore, Black Hills, and Custer State Park, South Dakota

Note: You can see pictures full screen by clicking on the picture. When you click on the back button after looking at something full screen, it will first go to the top. If you wait a second, it will jump back to the place where you were in the blog.

Mount Rushmore was really much more than we expected. The Park Service has done a wonderful job with its displays, museums, trails, and presentations there. The descriptions and old movies of how it was built were fascinating. Seeing the movies of the sculptor and his workers hanging in slings from the face of the mountain, working with jackhammers, was really amazing.


This is the sculptor's model that was used. They had an intricate method of converting the dimensions of this model into how they would "carve" the mountain.


They had a pillar for all 50 states, so I made Alan have his picture made by the one for Tennessee.


Rhoda at one of the vistas:


We went to the Crazy Horse Memorial. This is what they hope the memorial will look like when finished. It is the sculptor's model made back in the 1940's.


This is how much of the Crazy Horse Memorial is actually finished. Since it is all being done with private funds, it may never be finished. The original sculptor's family is still overseeing the project, and they have rejected federal funds to finish it.




We were surprised at the incredible wildflower displays we saw in the Black Hills and at Yellowstone. Because of the high elevations, it was spring in July.


Custer State Park had wonderful wildlife. We saw hundreds of bison, several mountain goats, as well as many pronghorn antelopes.


This is one of my favorite pictures, a pronghorn in a field of yellow coneflowers.




The Black Hills area has many corkscrew-type roads, winding through the mountains. Often they had long, narrow tunnels and precipitous dropoffs to the side of the road. Around every turn would be a pullout and a beautiful vista. The roads were not for people afraid of heights, however.



We hiked the Little Devil's Tower Trail, near Harney Peak (elevation 7,242 feet). The rock formations, called Hoodoos, were fascinating. They were all over the Black Hills area.







Pine Bark Beetles are devastating the pine trees, so the forest service is trying to deal with them by cutting down all affected trees. Some areas we hiked in were really sad to see.

Deadwood, South Dakota

We spent a fun day exploring Deadwood, South Dakota. Alan had read a lot about the various outlaws that had adventures there as well as the Gold Rush that created the town. (The rest of us probably know of Deadwood because of the HBO series.) Deadwood had an excellent small museum. In fact, we were impressed with the local historical societies and county museums that we visited in numerous places. Many were housed in old courthouses. I learned a lot of history and saw extremely interesting artifacts because of the efforts of local people to preserve the history of their area.

Devil's Tower, near Sundance, Wyoming

My brother recommended that we go to Devil's Tower, since it was just over the border in Wyoming from where we would be in South Dakota. I am really happy that we did. It is amazing. For those of you who saw the movie "Close Encounters of Another Kind," this is where they all ended up. In order to see scale, look at the tiny car on the highway in front of the tower. Remember that you can click on the pictures to see them full screen.




I am including this picture because it is what WE encountered on our trip--swarms of people in huge motor homes.

North Dakota

The only reason we went to North Dakota was so that I could say that I had been to all 50 states. We had a small celebration when we crossed the border into North Dakota.


We spent a day at Theodore Roosevelt National Park: