Woke up early again (darn campers get up at 7:00 every day!), took showers for $0.25 – I didn’t realize this quarter would only get me a limited amount of time…if I had known, I would not have shaved! I ended up donating another quarter! So after that we packed up & headed for Mt. Rushmore.
Along the way there were several sights to see. First we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, it was huge! In order to see the falls up close through the trees, you had to cross a creek. There was one skinny log going across…in our pictures (Smilebox) it doesn’t look that bad, but it was like walking a tight rope…luckily Mike and I have the skills of circus folks and made it across with no trouble. It was worth crossing the rapids of the creek…the pictures show just how beautiful it was.
After seeing the beauty of the falls, I had to go to the bathroom bad. I told Mike to stop at the next place he saw. He looked at me like I had lost my mind since we were on a windy road in the middle of no where! But lucky for me about 5 miles after my request we came upon a nice resort out there in the middle of nowhere! They had an awesome bathroom!!
On the way to Mt. Rushmore we went through many small gold mining towns. We found a Subway for lunch in a town called LEAD. We also found Bob’s Tee Pee Village – had to stop for a picture!
Next we stopped at Thunderhead Falls. Apparently they came about when miners were looking for gold underground when the water broke through and washed through the mine. So the falls were underground…we paid $12 to see this sight…big waste of money. They walk underground was long, narrow, and very cold…just wasn’t worth the money. We did see a house for sale close to the mine/waterfall…just a 3 bedroom 2 bath with a garage…take at guess at how much? Keep in mind its in the middle of the Black Forest……….great views………..$399.950!!! I guess the views are worth a lot, but I need a Target nearby for that amount! Ha ha!
Next stop, Mt. Rushmore! You could see the great presidents on the drive up the mountain & that in itself was really cool. When we finally arrived in the park (which only cost $10 to park & the pass lasts a year), it was incredible! We took a lot of pictures! There was one hiking path that went around a big loop in front of the mountain they presidents were on so you could see it from different angles. You could even take rock sculpting classes!
We left Mt. Rushmore and drove through the little town of Keystone, just below the presidents & then to our campsite. We stayed at Spokane Creek which looked to only be a few miles away, but the way the roads are in South Dakota, we had to wind up and down a mountain for 10 miles! It was very adventurous…and then the rain came making it even more exciting. Lucky for us, the rain stopped just as we got checked into our campsite. We actually had time at this campground to relax and talk to neighbors. The family next to us was from Grand Rapids, Michigan! We told them we wanted to see the light show at the Crazy Horse monument later that night and he gave us his ticket to get in. Apparently you pay by the car load and you can come & go the same day you purchase the ticket. We found out when we got there, that we saved $28! But before the light show, we grilled out…it was soooo good! It was just so nice to not be in a hurry…we took our time eating and then headed for Crazy Horse around 7:30…the show started at 9:00. Now on a map, this place appeared to be only 10 miles away “the way the bird flies” (that’s Mike’s line, not mine), but once we started the trip, we quickly realized the long curvy 2 lane road was going to take a lot longer than we thought. And sure enough to add to that thought, out comes a pack of donkeys in the middle of the road! That’s right, there were about a dozen of donkeys just trotting down the road! People were getting out to take pictures and some were even feeding them granola bars. They were very friendly! Mike even took off running with them and of course, I had to get a few pictures of them. After the donkeys we saw a buffalo grazing along side the road. Mike had the nerve to get out of the car & get pretty close to the big hairy beast for a picture....CRAZY!!!
It took over an hour to get to the monument of Crazy Horse. Apparently this monument will be larger than Mt. Rushmore when its completed. Crazy Horse is an Indian for those of you that didn’t know (I sure had no clue). It was really cold that night as we waited for the music and lights to start. Once it began, we watched for about 10 minutes and decided to drive back….what an interesting drive too – in the dark & constantly on the look out for donkeys, buffalo, deer…it was a long slow drive back to the tent!
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