Mt. Rushmore!

We've been calling this our Mt. Rushmore RV trip, and we made it to our destination on Friday! It was as awesome as I remembered, and the boys were as impressed as I hoped they would be. 

photo by Steven

We spent time in the Visitor's Center, and watched a movie on the carving of the mountain, then took the trail to the viewing areas and the Sculptor's Studio.

Taken from inside a small crevasse near the trail, you can just see Washington's head.

This 1/12 size scale model was sculpted before work on the mountain began.
You can see the ranger in the foreground as a size comparison.
You will notice the original plan was to carve full busts of the 4 men,
but the sculptor Gutzon Borglum died before it was finished, and his son
Lincoln, wrapped up the project.

Sample Face Masks

We spent about half a day there, then went back to Minnie for lunch before we drove down to Custer State Park. They wanted $20 just to drive through, and we decided we had seen enough bison and deer (the main attraction) without paying to see more. There is also a museum, but instead, we went back to the town of Custer and walked around. There are lots of shops and also a great Visitor's Center run by the Chamber of Commerce. The docent there was extremely friendly and informative, and we picked up several brochures and suggestions from her.

There are model buffalo all up and down Main Street, each painted with a unique design.
This one had Bighorn sheep climbing on it.