We had a blast in the Mt. Rushmore area. We were here for three days and packed a ton of fun into three days. It was a little tiring because we were on the go all the time but we had a lot of fun and got to experience a lot. Some of the highlights were:
The Rushmore Tramway Adventures where we rode the President’s Slide and Jadon, Rylan, and I spent a couple of hours at the aerial park going through the obstacle courses which included some smaller zip lines. It was a great way to spend a few hours and the kids were thrilled about the ziplining and the giant slide! It’s a nice ride up the mountain on a chair lift with great views from the top and some nice flowers and rocks. When we were here ten years ago the aerial park and zipline was not here.
Crazy Horse Memorial. It was amazing how much the same it looked as it did ten years ago even though they have been working on it regularly for a full decade. After some studying we were able to find some differences from last time, but from a distance it really hasn’t changed a whole lot. It’s quite a complex in addition to the monument itself which is still very much a work in progress and worth going to if you have never been.
Fireworks in Custer, SD. I think these might have been the best 4th of July fireworks display I’ve ever seen – it was certainly the closest I’ve ever been to them.
Shopping, shopping, and more shopping. Need I say more?
Ice cream (oh YUM! They have Praline Pecan out here – my favorite!). No picture, just yummy goodness!
Wind Cave National Park – this is really cool. Austin wasn’t so sure about it all but the older two really liked it. It was their first time to really be in a true cave. They kept pointing out the “rooms” they would claim for their bedroom if they could live down there. This cave was different than most I’ve been in because it didn’t have stalactites or stalagmites. Instead it has 95% of the known Boxwork in the world as well as some stuff called Popcorn. There is only one known entrance and that “natural entrance” is only 12 inches by 18 inches in size…..called Wind Cave because the wind blows either in or out of the cave at varying degrees of speed but sometimes as high as 70 MPH. The cave is still being explored and discovered. They estimate they’ve only found around 10% of the cave. The known part of the cave is 146 miles of winding tunnels and rooms like spaghetti taking up only a 1 square mile section of earth so it’s very condensed and very interconnected.
And of course………….The “Mountain Rushmore” National Memorial itself. Simply amazing in so many ways. An astounding feat of sculpturing. We really didn’t have enough time to adequately take it in, but took advantage of the time that we had and enjoyed walking the Presidential Trail around the monument, eating at the cafeteria (more Praline Pecan ice cream), reading the plaques, and generally staring in awe at the faces on the mountain.
Our Junior Rangers:
At night from 9:30 to 11:00 they shine lights on Mount Rushmore which is really neat to see as well. Because of how the mountain is situated you can see the faces from quite a distance away and the drive up to the memorial from Keystone gives you some great views both day and night
Austin adopted calling it “Mountain Rushmore” which was so adorable that I refrained from correcting the term. It was too cute to try to fix.
Ironically it worked out that we were in the Mount Rushmore area exactly ten years to the day from when Charity and I had come before. Ten year tradition starting? Perhaps…
Then (July 5th 2006)…..and…..Now (July 5th 2016):
When we were here ten years ago there was a man setup near the amphitheater named Don “Nick” Clifford who had worked on Mount Rushmore during the construction and had a Q&A booth setup with a book he had written. He was 85 years old at the time and we spent some time talking with him and bought his book which he autographed. This time he wasn’t there but his book still was. I asked one of the rangers about him and they said he turned 95 this year and decided to retire. This was the first year he hadn’t been there. They said he still frequents the memorial and in fact had been there the day before but no longer has the Q&A booth.
On Wednesday, July 6th, we split with mom and dad. They headed back toward Indiana and we headed further west.