Day 09 - Crazy Horse Memorial & Mt. Rushmore - South Dakota

 Today we visited two incredible works of art. One is the famous Mt. Rushmore which shows George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. The other is Indian Chief Crazy Horse. This first picture of Mt. Rushmore (from a distance) was taken on the road from our camp ground winding down the mountain on our way to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Donna liked this wooden bridge.

An Indian Tepee inside the Crazy Horse Memorial Museum

Model of the Crazy Horse Memorial Complex.
The sculpture is in the back near the middle.

The white statue is a 1/30th size model of the real memorial
which is shown in the background. Upon completion within several
years or even a decade or so, it will be the largest sculpture on Earth.

At this point only the face of Crazy Horse is completed.
The project is totally financed by private contributions,
no US Government funding at all.

This is a picture of how the sculpture will be carved out
of the mountain.

Donna with the Crazy Horse memorial in the background

Here you can see a clearer picture of the face of Crazy Horse.

Souix Indian Tribal Dancers

Avenue of the State Flags at the entrance to Mt. Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore - What else can I say - Amazing!

Day 07 & 08 - Badlands National Park, South Dakota

 On Monday (August 29) we drove from Laramie, Wyoming to Interior, South Dakota. It rained most of the day so we only arrived at our campsite (White River KOA) around 4:00pm. It continued to rain all night, but we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day on Tuesday. After breakfast we drove to the Badlands National Park. They charge $15. to enter the park, so our Sr. National Park Pass came in handy again, allowing us to get in free. The park was awesome. We always start our tours of National Parks by stopping at the Visitors Center, watch the park geology/paleontology movie, get the park stamp, and tour any special exhibits. After that we began our tour of the park.

We decided to hike this trail. It was a really fun climb for the first
mile or so because of all the rain last night. We slid down one step
for every two steps we took up the mountain.

Donna on the trail trying to climb up the muddy slope.
We had to practically climb on our hands & knees.

Muddy trail. Carey slid twice and got dirty knees in the process.

View from the top of the trail.

The trail eventually led to a flat, dry walking path which we
hiked in a loop for 3 more miles before heading back down the
same muddy trail we came up on. It was dryer going back down.

Now we know why they call this the Badlands!

We didn't see any, but we did see a mountain goat and a few frogs.

Lunch time back at the Visitor's Center

After lunch we hiked another trail - Notch Trail.
Check out the ladder we had to climb.

Donna climbing the ladder. Good job! You did it.
Going back down was a little tougher.

Check out the ladder in the distance. We're still climbing.

Looks like we're on the Moon

We are in the middle of no where! I'm glad we brought extra water!

This was the start of our driving tour. Incredible place.

Panoramic view from one of the pullout areas.

Back at our campsite. Tomorrow we go to Mt. Rushmore.