Day 10 - May 20th

Today was busy and rewarding. First we traveled to Mount Rushmore and spent several hours touring the exhibit halls, watching the documentaries and visiting the artists studio. Seeing the models for the monument and the final results was quite amazing.

After spending the better part of the day at Rushmore, we went home to feed and walk the girls, have a quick bite to eat and then took an evening drive through Custer State Park along the Wildlife Drive. There is no doubt that Buffalo (Bison) should not be on the endangered species list. The large herd that we watched was made up by at least 25% new calves. Continuing on our drive we saw white tail deer, prong horn deer and mule deer. And oh yes, donkeys that immediately came right up to the car and one stuck his nose in Donna's window...definitely not shy! Towards the end of the drive we spotted a prong horn with its antlers stuck in a section of field fencing. We have no idea how long he had been there but ever 20 or 30 seconds he would twist and jump or turn as much as he could to try and get free. We finally checked out cell phone service and called the emergency number for the park which gave us the local sheriffs since all of the park rangers were gone for the day. The sheriff promises to contact the rangers to come and set it free. We waited about 20 more minute and the prong horn finally made the correct flip to free itself, so call the sheriff again and proceed on our trip. And oh by the way, for our Oregonian friends...coming upon a deer on the highway at night pales by comparison to coming upon a 2000 pound black Bison standing in the middle of the road.

By now it is dark and we are taking 16A back to Rushmore to see it lit up at night. We have determined that any road labeled with an "A" is an indicator for "Awful" we are hopeful the those labeled with "B" will be "Better". This road is one hairpin turn after another followed by pig tail turns (corkscrews). Periodically it divides into two small single lanes in each direction. There are numerous low clearance bridges and four single lane tunnels chipped out of solid granite. At one of the tunnels, as you look forward, you get a view of Rushmore lit up in the distance. At two more of the turns were also views of the illuminated figures and it appears that trees had been removed just to accommodate the view.

When we got back to Rushmore it was a totally different feeling under artificial lights rather than natural daylight. The walk of flags was much more dramatic but the artificial lighting failed to show the sculptural features of the Presidents as well as in the daylight. As we were leaving, we noticed that a large harvest moon had arisen and was framed by the granite arches at the far end of the walk. It was quite an awesome sight.