Mt Rushmore....finally getting here....

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George Washington 1732-1799

Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826

Theodore Roosevelt 1858-1919

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865



and Gutzon Borglum 1867-1941



Back in October 1941, date of the end of the work at Mount Rushmore, these are the men and their dates of birth. The architect of this landmark died in March 1941, but it is the war effort who ended the funding of the project in October the same year.



Mt Rushmore, carved in granite is a leading monument in the United States, honoring the four of their Presidents, also called the founding fathers. They were the first President, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the third President, Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President, and Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President.



You can google all the explanations about this monument all over the internet, so let's share here the experience we had. We left Sioux Falls early morning. Little stop in Mitchell to visit the Corn Palace on the way. It was a good six hours just to get to our destination, so we left pretty early again. The first few hours, it's corn over field of corn, flat land, slightly boring. The hills only start when you approach your destination. I was really wondering if we got it wrong in the planing at one stage, but finally, here we were, reaching back the mountains of the West, leaving the flat Middle-West behind us.



Mt Rushmore is part of the National Parks, but you do not need your National Parks pass here, entry is free. What is not free is the 10usd parking fee....decent...and as you are in the middle of nowhere, there are not really any option.



We planned few hours to visit the site. As a Belgian friend who had visit years earlier, I have to agree with his comment. Mt Rushmore must be one of the most isolated site in the United States, making this visit a very special one. Think about it, it's a 15 to 18 hours to any of the following cities, like Las Vegas, Chicago or San Francisco. Salt Lake City is the closest major city, over 10 hours drive from here. You've got to earn your visit to Mt Rushmore!



The visit took us a good 2 to 3 hours. Not only the site is impressive, but they have movies, lectures....the all lot explaining how they carved the four presidents in the granite...and also why the site is actually unfinished and will remain as such. The engineering behind all this is simply stunning. As always, it was in the beautiful day, one more sunny day on this amazing trip. We are not tired yet of seeing amazing places...and few more are coming very soon.



Next, we are driving late afternoon through the truly beautiful Black Hills National Forest all the way to Deadwood were we are going to spend the night. It's great to be back in the West. I have to admit, driving the central areas of United States can be boring from time to time...here in South Dakota and next to Montana, it's another story....here it's alpine driving, truly fun!



More to come soon, but we are getting sooner or later to the end of this great road trip!

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