Day 6 - Mount Rushmore

Today has been my personal favorite, so far, plus I got to check off an item from the bucket list. We made it to see Mount Rushmore, and all I can say is that pictures do not even give you the magnitude of this amazing project that was created many moons again. We walked the Presidential Trail and we were able to see the mountain from so many angles, even through a rock that had cracked. It was amazing to see the original idea that the artist had, I can't even imagine the time it would have taken to finish the original project. I also found out that the room behind Lincoln's head is indeed real. However, they do not keep US documents there as once intended, they do have some items in there to "honor" the artist since the room was not finished until 1998. The kids received their Jr. Ranger pins here as well, they thought that was SUPER cool. On the way out we saw a mountain goat up close and personal.

After, we decided to buzz over and take a peek at Crazy Horse memorial. Here they are making a carving in the mountain of the Indian Crazy Horse. It started in 1948 and to this day is not complete, I don't know if it will be complete in my life time, but when it is done it will be impressive. We did not pay the park entrance fee as it was very expensive but we were able to see the face that was done.

Following the Crazy Horse memorial, we headed for Custer State Park. Here we paid for the entrance so we could go on the wildlife loop. If you just drive through you don't have to pay the fees, but we wanted to stop and see what we could. We saw the typical animals for the area deer, prong horns, buffalo, turkey, prairie dogs and so on. The next animal we saw was wild burros. This was so fun, the animal are in fact wild, but they come from animals that were released into the wild after they had been used to pack in people and equipment, so they are accustomed to people. So they told us that we could feed the burros, we had some carrots that we had packed for lunch and those animals were so greedy that they ate all the carrots we had, but it was worth it. The animals would stick there heads into the cars, eat out of your hands, and follow you if you bribed them with food. Coly was too scared to feed the burros, however Lou gave it a go and got nipped, so she would not do it again. But we loved this!

We rushed back to the base so we could get ready for our dinner with Raine and Evie. Raine is Grandpa Don's second wife and Evie is her mother. I have not see Raine in 15 years, and Evie in about 19. It was so fun to see them again and to catch up with them. What a great day.