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Packed up and drove into Rapid City this morning, found a FREE parking spot (take note Bunbury) and went for a wander along the tree lined streets! With a population of about 70,000 Rapid City is a clean, neat city and in an unusual feature has brass life like statues of 42 of the 43 US Presidents - Obama will be included once his term has finished - placed on the corners of the main city streets! We walked about and saw a few, found a coffee shop and enjoyed the newly developed central town square with its fountains and Red Indian inspired stone statues.
Then we headed the 60 or so kilometres to Mount Rushmore which is in the Badlands National Park, passing through the village of Keystone with all it's souvenir shops, and then pausing at the entrance to pay the $11 per car entry fee! There was a multi level car park, so we got a spot under cover and then proceeded up the huge steps to the entry - and got our first view of this awesome place! High on the cliff face in the distance were the 4 carved Presidents, looking amazingly life like for statues so huge!
There was a flag lined Avenue of the States and then another big arch way before we finally stood on the terrace in front of this monument! We spent ages just taking it all in, taking photos and then took a trail to the base of the mountain the statues are carved into, before looking through the museum and watching a feature film about how it was all done!
We had all been looking forward to today and we were not the slightest bit disappointed - it was magnificent!
From Mount Rushmore we drove a few miles to the Crazy Horse Memorial - another statue carved from the mountain - which is much taller than the Presidents! It was commissioned by the local Red Indian tribes to remind locals of the harsh treatment the indigenous folk suffered during settlement of the state. It is only part finished and will be a long, long time before it is completed. No government money has been used to make it and the whole attraction will feature an Indian University and many other departments.
From there it was back to Rapid City to rejoin I90E and head east. As we drove along we saw many hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of advertising signs for "Wall Drug"!!! It puzzled us greatly and the signs advertised everything from food to jewellery and all sorts of other stuff. Eventually we Googled it and discovered that it was a place in the town of Wall that started as a drug store (chemist in the US) and now sold everything!
Naturally we had to call in for a look and saw a whole block of interlinked shops selling any cheap, crap things you could think of! There were some decent leather goods, but it was "cheap and trashy" at its best and there were hundreds of travellers who had been conned by the signs having a look!
We drove a few more miles until we'd had enough for the day and found a quaint little spot called Kadoka which has a nice motel by the Interstate.
Well, today has been fantastic! Mount Rushmore has now been ticked off the bucket list!
- comments
george manning Hi Guys!What a journey you're having. I didn't realise that this was a driving holiday. Your journal has brought back many memories, because my road trip started in LA. We headed south - travelled north through Alberquerque, and Denver -into Canada, then back into the USA, through Washington and Oregon states.We joined your journey, travelling South, at Portland , thence on, and over the Golden Gate bridge etc, and eventually back to LA, Disneyland, and then home.I'm enjoying every episode of the journey. Can't wait for the next chapter.Kind regards,george