1993/07 Rockies trip - Black Hills and Rushmore and Crazy Horse |
|||||
Then we were off through some really empty country (empty except for pronghorn) towards the Black Hills. 
We camped at a KOA campground a few miles from Mount Rushmore. We dropped the trailer there and drove to Rushmore Cave. I believe the buildings in the picture are part of a gold or silver mine, unrelated to the cave, which is in limestone cliffs and not a place to find metals.
Rushmore Cave wasn't really worth the trip, as it has only one cave with a few stalagthingies,
but at least we were out of the weather, which wasn't all that good.
Then we finished the day off at Mount Rushmore's evening ceremony - an "inspirational" address by a ranger, a film about the construction, one verse of "God Bless America", and a lighting of the heads. It might have been better if the ranger had done it before, and if the film hadn't run slow, and if we weren't perched on hard rocks, but it was a good example of Americana.
I took this picture from the road on our way in. Thereafter it was too dark for pictures.
Friday June 25th
Next morning our first stop was going to be for a quick look at the Crazy Horse memorial, which was commissioned by a Lakota elder and was being built on private land. We stayed longer than expected. As well as this view of the memorial there is a model of intended final result. Completion may take a while; it had already been under construction for 45 years.
The site included a museum of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski's life and works. He'd worked on Mount Rushmore too but the Crazy Horse memorial was his life's work. After his death his wife continued to manage the project.
We found an Indian flute for Joanna at the museum. We bought it from Lakota George, famous for his playing as well as his flutes.