Black Hills Mt Rushmore

Pin It

Our last stop on our trip was only supposed to last a few days. We were going to stop, check out Mt Rushmore, attend a lighting ceremony and be on our way. Well, as previously posted my Dad’s emergency surgery had us staying in the area a lot longer than expected so we had more time to poke around.(BTW: My Dad is out of the Hospital, but still recovering.)

First off, I found the Mt Rushmore area to be heavily commercialized. I wasn’t really thrilled with all that either. I did however enjoy Hill City, SD more than Keystone, SD. Our KOA campground was wonderful as well with a LOT of kid friendly activities and play areas. With that said….

We went to visit Custer State Park. There is supposedly a herd of some 1,500 Bison running around free on this park. I say supposedly because I mostly saw a lot of overly friendly donkeys. (I love mini donks!!!)
We only saw 5 of that Bison herd. I was feeling pretty let down and made the comment, “that only leaves 1,495 left of the herd to find!” When we rounded a corner and WHOA! There was a pile up of cars that we were going to pass because we couldn’t figure out WHAT they had stopped about. Yah… look to your right out the window and when you can see the GLINT of sun light in their eyes, you’re too close.
2,000 pounds of unpredictable, untamed wild. And guess what! People were getting OUT of their vehicles within 10 foot of this animal to take pictures. Our vehicle was too close for my comfort and I took pictures from inside. Crazy people… don’t they know this huge beastie can do a 180 in seconds, coon jump 6 feet in the air and run faster than a moped?! Amazing animals!

The highlight of the trip was to see Mt Rushmore. Due to running up and down the mountain to visit my Dad, we did not get to see a lighting ceremony. We did however meet, have a quick pix taken and picked up the book of Nick Clifford, one of the original Mt Rushmore carvers! That was pretty spectacular. I also learned lots of interesting facts about Mt Rushmore from the very cool museum on site too. Such as, the monument is not complete! Roosevelt’s head is so far back due to bad rock being in the front. There is a Hall of Records only 25 ft behind the monument that holds ceramic plates of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc. The carver’s got so good at their jobs they could blast within 4 inches of where they needed to with dynamite! And so much more…

We also took some quick passes past the Crazy Horse monument being worked on too, but never during a good time with lighting to take a picture.

Check out more of my fun RV trip by clicking here!

Follow @wishfulme