On our second vacation day, we drove up to
Mt. Rushmore. We didn't spend a lot of time there, but if you go to the Black Hills you pretty much have to check out this iconic hunk of Americana. I do have mixed feelings about the whole thing, though. Four huge faces of white guys seems like a gigantic middle finger to all the native people who were kicked out of the Black Hills.
We drove out to Mt. Rushmore from Custer State Park on Iron Mountain Rd. (16A) which was fun, windy, and swoopy. It curled around sparkly granite needles and ponderosa forests. It's not the quickest route, but it's definitely the most scenic and dramatic.
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| Mt. Rushmore |
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| checking out Mt. Rushmore from Hwy 16A |
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| Ice cream = Thomas Jefferson? |
For the rest of the day, we explored
Custer State Park. This place is HUGE -- at 71,000 acres, it's one of the biggest state parks in the United States. It's also gorgeous. The landscape ranges from rolling grasslands to rocky pinnacles to ponderosa forests. The four of us camped at the Game Lodge Campground, which had a great centralized location and a couple ponds. I'm glad we made
reservations -- the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was just finishing up, and the hills were still swarming with bikes.
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| prairie dogs |
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| Game Lodge Campground |
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