Blogs from Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, United States, North America

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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 ... read more
Arriving to the National Landmark...
Stunning, even from the road!
The work it took to do this!


We were up early as we are still trying to adjust to crossing another time zone. We spent the morning exploring the Black Hills north of our campground. The Black Hills are a granite that are dark in colour but can reflect the light to look more like silver . They are called hills but in Nova Scotia they would be mountains. The drive has lots of twists turns, ups and downs. The cliffs have dense outcroppings of tall straight ponderosa pine. Along this route there are lots of mountain streams and some waterfalls. Francois would love the fishing spots in this area. We visited the historic mining town of Deadwood. The buildings on the cobblestone streets date back to the mid 1800’s. It had a rowdy reputation in its early days and still has lots ... read more
Deadwood
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Biway
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Biway.


Up early today to get jump on a long day. Al having to deal with hot water problem which "guru" Ray's magic could not solve. We left Oasis Campground on the banks of the Missouri and were on the road by 8:30am. The farmlands of the prior day swiftly changed to rolling hills with grazing cattle abundant. Instead of leaving the 15mph winds behind, they continued at 20mph for most of the day as we literally sailed along Interstate 90 toward the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. The weather was a little cooler with highs only in the 60s but still sunny. Somewhere along the way we passed into the Mountain time zone and gained another hour. However, this is 2 additional hours in less than a week and we still haven't caught up. We stopped for ... read more
prairie dogs near gas station
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Sue,Tom,Peggy&Dorrie in Badlands


DAY 15 - Monday, July 11, 2016 Black Hills National Forest to Mt. Rushmore to Keystone, SD to Rapid City, SD to Spearfish, SD Thank you, Lord God, for a good night’s sleep! It’s easy to forget what solid sleep feels like on a 20 day motorhome trip. If you’ve been reading our blog for this whole trip than you know “we had a nice breakfast.” :) And back to Mt. Rushmore. We watched the movie, listened to a ranger speak about the sculptor’s vision and work, and thoroughly enjoyed one of our greatest American landmarks. Pearl did her junior ranger work and can now tell you all about Mt. Rushmore - just ask her! We ate Thomas Jefferson’s hand-scooped vanilla ice-cream bought more t-shirts and finished our time at Mt. Rushmore. We still had a ... read more
feeling very Patriotic
another swearing in at Mt. Rushmore for Jr. Ranger
just our heads


Yesterday we went to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse with friends of ours from Colorado Springs (John & Jill). We all were amazing at what we saw. Mount Rushmore was built by a creative genius. It was stunning and beautiful at the same time. I was so glad I had purchased a 500mm camera lenses before we left for our adventure. Thus the amazing close up pictures of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. Crazy Horse was a very interesting project. Built strictly on private funds it has been a slow process to build. As you can see from the pictures it probably won't be completed in even our grandchildren's lifetime. The purpose of the project is a worthy one. Google Crazy Horse to get the details. The scenery in the park around Mount Rushmore was beautiful ... read more
Crazy Horse - close 5
Crazy Horse - up close 1
Crazy Horse - up close 2


hier visite du Mount Rushmore et Crazy Horse.Puis petit tour dans Custer Park ou nous avons emprunté la NEEDLE ROAD et TUNNEL ROAD......un avant gout car aujourd'hui direction Custer Park pour voir les bisons!!!... read more
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Saturday, 28 June, 2014 As we drove north from Douglas to Gillette, we spotted a lot of pronghorns. I don't know whether they are more plentiful up here (I believe they are) or if we are getting better at spotting them (that, too.) The beautiful green rolling hills of eastern Wyoming prairie spread as far as the eye can see. There are long trains here, too, but instead of being loaded with containerized freight, they are filled with coal from the mines around Gillette. We passed a few of the mines today. All morning the sky was full of puffy white clouds, which grew darker and denser as the day wore on. At Gillette, we turned east onto I-90 for a few miles before turning north to Devil's Tower National Monument. Sean seemed impressed by the ... read more
Devil's Tower National Monument
Kids have to climb on rocks
Devil's Tower


While driving thru 8 states there have been several shapes and sizes of "clumped" grass. Jess and I have discovered that we both have an issue with the phrase "bales of hay". Today saw us rising bleary eyed and before the sun in Bismarck, ND. After my freshly made waffle, we set out to see Salem Sue, the worlds largest heifer statue. Not only did we get a photo opp with Sue, we also got a panoramic view of New Salem, ND with sunflower fields, windmills, and rolling hills. The 2nd stop of the today was the Enchanted Highway in Regent, ND. The highway stretched 32 miles with 6 different scrap metal statues ranging from geese (currently worlds largest scrap metal statue) to grasshoppers. The favorite has to be fishermans dream. Everyone, get your fist pump ... read more
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Today we are traveling to Buffalo, Wy via Rt 16 East, Rt 90, then Rt 16 South Dakota to Mt. Rushmore. After reaching Buffalo, heading toward Rt. 90, we came upon Bighorn National Forest. What a wonderful surprise it was. We traveled the canyon floor, up the canyon walls, and across the rim of the canyon. All offering incredible scenery. At the top of the rim we went across a 10,000 foot mountain pass, descending into red rock country and to a small town of Tensleep. One of our pictures describes how the town was named, it makes sense after you read it. Traveling on I-90 is nice as we can travel 75 mph, but we elected to take scenic route 16 to head towards our next attraction-Crazy Horse. We entered the town of Custer on ... read more
Red rock in South Dakota
Description of how a neat little town in SD got its name
Business in Ten Sleep, SD




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