Our plan today was to stay local. With that in mind, we booked a motel in Rapid City, SD for tonight. We left the sleepy town of Sundance, WY at 9:00am and crossed into South Dakota a few minutes later.
We drove through Spearfish Canyon on the scenic State Highway 14A south into the Black Hills. This is another steep and narrow canyon that follows Spearfish Creek as it descends from the mountains to the south. It was Saturday morning, and the road is full of motorcycles, UTV’s/ATV’s, and campers. This is a beautiful drive that winds through several mountain resorts and ski areas. At this time of year it looks like the main activity is driving/renting off-road UTV’s, many of which were driving on the highway.
It wasn’t long before we got to Gutzon Borglum’s (see portrait below) opus on the mountain. Even though it was a weekend, the parking area/visitor area at Mt. Rushmore National Monument made it easy to get in and out.
We took a short walk on the Presidential Trail, which takes you up to the base of the mountain, and snapped a few photos.
The NPS Ranger talk was informative. We learned about Borglum’s plan for a storage vault (see photo below) built into the granite behind the faces, where he expected to preserve historical documents (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Emancipation Proclamation, etc). According to the ranger, the U.S. Government was not interested in this project and halted funding for it. The partially completed vault is now a 70’ long tunnel that is closed to the public.
Then, we went back up to I-90 east to visit the most famous drug store in the west. Funny thing: when we got to Wall Drug, the pharmacy was closed! However, all the other shops and restaurants in this sprawling tourist complex were open and doing a fine weekend business. Karen had some homemade blueberry pie and we made the short drive back west to Rapid City for the night.
Next: The Badlands and Sioux Falls
As usual, I look forward to reading your blog. Difficult to be patient when you don't have internet.
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