South Dakota - Black Hills National Forest and Mount Rushmore
By the time we arrived in South Dakota, Matt, Angee and I were well into this week-long roadtrip. We had driven from the Pacific Ocean through beautiful mountains of California, saw Lake Tahoe, the Salt Flats of Utah, the Grand Tetons, and everything in between. We had jumped off a mountain, and Matt had climbed Devils Tower. So, needless to say, we were a bit tired. We arrived in South Dakota, walked around a bit in Sturgis, then made our way down to the Mount Rushmore area. The Monument was a bit underwhelming to us. FIrst, there were very rude people taking $10 to park. You actually could buy a pass for $10 so you could park there for a year, but the pass is only good for one vehicle, and since we were driving a rented vehicle, then it was simply $10 to park. I don't think it was the cost, but rather how rude the person taking the money was. We had the distinct impression that it was everyone's first day at work, and noone really knew what they were doing. We park, and walk in. The Visitor Center was open, but the information desk, to get your passport stamped, was closed. Angee and I had been collecting passport stamps, so that was unfortunate.
The monument itself was interesting, but rather odd. Why someone would do this to a perfectly good mountain is beyond me. We looked at it a bit, and were done. Angee insisted that we get a photo of the three of us, so we asked a bystander to help. He took the shot, but when we looked at it, it was ONLY of the three of us - the guys on the rock were nowhere in the photo, even tho we were clearly standing with the intention of having them in the background.
We were punchy and were laughing about this, when another family noticed and asked what the heck was up. We told them and they re-took the photo. This time, the photo was all black - I think they had their finger over the lens. Again, as we walked away, we were laughing, and finally found a bystander that could take a photo of us with Mount Rushmore in the background.
We stayed at a hotel nearby, and Angee and I came back at night to see it lit up. Somehow, we also got our passports stamped. whew. Oh, and the Black Hills are really nice! I think if I came back, I would just hike here.
