South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore

It’s the Fourth of July and we have a goal to be at Mt. Rushmore today, so we hit the road early. Having departed Greybull, we headed east for 250 miles through Wyoming. What an amazingly diverse state. The area around Greybull was relatively flat, but within 20 minutes of leaving Greybull we were driving thru the Big Horn National Forest, through deep canyons with steep walls. Driving further down the road, we were treated to the sight of beautiful snow-capped Big Horn Mountains as we began our ascent to 9666 feet, the highest point on this trip.

Of course, what goes up must also go down and we wound our way down the mountain roads, passing canyons and streams. Dotted along this trip are charming little towns, decked out in their Fourth of July finery. Flags, parades, fairs, and smokers were evident everywhere. Yesterday we saw the little town of Emblem, Wyoming with a population of 10; today we saw the second-runner-up which was the little town of Ten Sleep with a population of 285. This is a charming little town which was setting up for its annual Fourth of July parade, complete with a huge smoker preparing food for the crowds and a flea market at the local church. Americana at it’s best!

While visiting Mt. Rushmore we will be staying at Custer State Park. This park was recommended by Jim’s nephew Jason, and he did not lead us astray. This is a beautiful park with lots of big Ponderosa Pines, lakes, natural tunnels, and wildlife. Camping in the park is different from the campgrounds we’ve been using. Here, there is no cable TV, on-site water, or paved parking areas. We are staying in the woods (we do have electric) on a really large site. There are other campers here but you hardly hear them. It is quiet, a little rustic, and so comforting.

After making camp, we headed straight to the main attraction – Mt. Rushmore. We drove thru Custer State Park and into Mt. Rushmore National Park. Along the drive, we drove thru tunnels drilled straight into the rock and beautiful views. The roads are challenging, very narrow and at times only one lane wide.

Seeing Mt. Rushmore was once of those experiences that is surreal. You’ve seen pictures your entire life and then you are standing there, viewing it for yourself. We just kept taking pictures from different angles and trying to wrestle with the reality of being there. Guests at the monument enter on an upper level viewing platform, walking through a large display of flags from every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Below this viewing area is a large amphitheater with a huge American flag. I decided to climb down to the bottom to try to get a shot of the flag against the monument -- that's the picture at the top of this post. I also climbed on a wall to get the same sort of picture with West Virginia’s flag (Jim had to come to my rescue to get me down).

Inside the visitor’s center is a very nice museum and 2 theaters showing films of how the monument was created over the 14 years of its development. Once outside, we tried the ice cream and read about how Thomas Jefferson developed the ice cream recipe, copies of which can be purchased in the ice cream shop (supposedly copies of the original recipe in Thomas Jefferson’s handwriting). My favorite flavor of ice cream is Praline Pecan, which they offered, and it was wonderful.

After leaving the monument we drove thru both parks, and found some amazing wildlife along the way – wild buffalo with many babies in the herd, a beautiful Elk, and some Big Horn cattle with horns that spread out at least 3 feet from their heads. In these pictures, you see fences. These are not pasture fences to keep them in, they are just fences along the roadways to protect the wildlife from wandering onto the roads.

We arrived back at our campsite and made a “camper’s special” dinner – Jim prepared a foil pack of diced potatoes and onions, seasoned with butter, salt and pepper. I prepared a foil pack of fresh broccoli, carrots and celery, seasoned with butter, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. We put the potatoes on the grill for about 30 minutes then added the veges for another 15 minutes or so. Jim then grilled ham slices to finish our dinner. Great camping dinner – virtually no dishes to wash other than flatware and totally delicious. We sat outside and ate until the temperature really start to drop from a sunny 85 when we were visiting Mt. Rushmore, to about 55 once the sun set. What a wonderful day! So iconic for the 4th of July – still having a bit of trouble believing it all.

In the quiet coolness of this beautiful park, we both slept like babies and this morning, we went in the town of Custer to explore it. It has a lot of campgrounds and restaurants, a few souvenir shops, and a Family Dollar where we purchased some supplies we needed. But the coolest thing we saw in Custer was the 1818 Courthouse Museum. It is located, not surprisingly, in the old Courthouse and was built in 1818. From the outside, it didn’t look too big but it is a wonderful museum. It is full (very full) of artifacts from pioneer days, the gold rush, frontier days, household items thru the 1950’s, and military and farming equipment from all of those eras. There is even a replica of an old mine. Everything has been meticulously labeled with descriptions of its use and time period.

One of the most intriguing areas is the second floor, which is the old courtroom complete with jury box and judge’s chambers. In the photo below you can see the cabinet used to store legal documents such as claims and tax records. Next to the judge’s chambers is a one-room school which still contains desks from the early 1900’s. Back downstairs there was a beautiful display of children’s dresses from the very early 1900’s; many of them were used as christening gowns and the handwork on these gowns was just beautiful. Outside we saw the cabin of one of the first townspeople (circa 1875). The museum is completely volunteers – there is no paid staff and all contributions were donations from local townspeople. This accounts for the attention to detail and the obvious pride the town takes in preserving their unique heritage.

We are back at our campsite. We’ll make a simple supper and head out tomorrow for Nebraska, Missouri, and then Kentucky. What constitutes a simple supper when you’re camping? Grilled boneless chicken thighs with bbq sauce, Redi-rice long-grained rice (90 seconds in the microwave) and steamed green beans (steam in the bag in the microwave); sliced a mini-watermelon for dessert. Serve it all on paper plates. Delicious supper, virtually no clean up except flatware, and it’s that easy.

We’re definitely winding up this trip and thinking of home, especially while writing post cards to all 10 grandchildren this evening. We’ve about another week on the road. It seems like a long time since the first night when we were in Virginia – we’ve seen so much and been about 5800 miles. Time to be homeward bound.