The battle of the big rocks - Mt Rushmore vs Crazy Horse

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We went to a place that many tourists to the US would not dare visit - Rapid City, South Dakota. Not exactly the nicest city in the world, Rapid City is typical middle America - old school diners with artery clogging grub, sprawling shopping malls full of fat people and McMansions everywhere. The people in South Dakota seemed to talk slower than those in the more touristy areas of the USA.

Why did we go to Rapid City? Because it is the closest major city to check out Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore National Memorial is bigger than you could every imagine - a massive carving into the granite face of Mount Rushmore. It features 18 metre sculptures of the heads of former US Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. The memorial park is just as massive and over the top. You gotta love the patriotism of the Yanks.

As patriotic as that seems, the Black Hills National Park natives think they can do one better and started constructing the Crazy Horse Memorial. The memorial is being constructed to commemorate the famous Native American leader and as a response to Mount Rushmore. It is intended to be larger than Mount Rushmore but has rejected offers of Government money. However, this memorial is likewise the subject of controversy, even within the Native American community.

Elsewhere in the Black Hills National Park, we spotted even scarier things - huge black bears. At the end of the day, I was pretty happy to get out of South Dakota and somewhere more normal - but this part of the world was certainly worth a visit.

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