Blogs from Rapid City, South Dakota, United States, North America - page 4

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North America » United States » South Dakota » Rapid City September 30th 2011

So, today was spent at two different big mountain memorials. If you know the history of Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse sculpture, then skip ahead.... The Black Hills were considered sacred land by the Lakota people who lived here. And in the original treaty between the US government and the Lakota, the Hills were part of the territory ceded to the tribe. However, once it was discovered that there was "gold in them thar hills" the Lakota were forced off the land. When mining started to die down in South Dakota, the powers that be decided to try and up the tourism business. Gutzon Borglum was working on the Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta, and was approached by the South Dakotans to do something in this state. He decided to do 4 presidents. And you ... read more

North America » United States » South Dakota » Rapid City September 29th 2011

So, today was spent on the bus. From 8 am to just about 4 pm. As Jack (our tour guide) put it, today is a long airport transfer. It's a lot simpler for many people to fly into Denver than into Rapid City, so Globus starts the tour there. Bus ride was pretty uneventful, cloud cover when we were leaving Denver meant that we couldn't see the peaks of the Rockies in the distance, but it cleared up as we got into Wyoming. About 20 people on the bus, and according to Jack there are a total of 45 on the tour. A bit more than I've had on the last tours, but such is life. And apparently, some folks are only going as far as Salt Lake City. Saw some free range antelope as we ... read more

North America » United States » South Dakota » Rapid City September 29th 2011

So, I took a little walk after we got to the hotel. Main Street seems to have been done up with the tourist trade in mind. A few restaurants (including a vegan one), some stores, and on each corner a statue of a president. According to the info I got from other people on my tour, there is a statue of every president somewhere in town, but I didn't hunt them all down. Quick "meeting" at 6 pm. After spending the bus ride up with just 20 people, it was weird to see 40 some people in one room. And realize that as much as I just want to hide out in the back of the bus, I am probably going to have to sit next to someone the whole time. The tour guide said he ... read more

North America » United States » South Dakota » Rapid City August 19th 2011

Rapid City is a city with a population of close to 70,000. It's located in the western part of the state not far from the Wyoming border. There are a lot of attractions within a 50 mile radius of this small city. First of all, there is the South Dakota Air & Space Museum which is located adjacent to Ellsworth Air Force Base. This facility is located a few miles to the northeast of the city. This museum has over two dozen aircraft sitting outside and they date from the second world war through the cold war era. There are additional exhibits inside along with a gift shop. The small town of Wall is located about fifty miles east of Rapid City on Interstate 90. It is best known for the famous Wall Drug. This place ... read more
Mount Rushmore
Crazy Horse Memorial
Custer State Park


Geo: 44.0812, -103.231I let us sleep in until 6 am since we had been up early for the past few mornings. We headed back north along Hwy 16 to Rapid City. On the way to Keystone we saw statues on some of the city's corners, so we decided to stop and investigate on the way back. The city has a project of placing life-size bronze statues of each of the past presidents. They currently have 39. So Naomi and I were able to get pics of a few of them.... read more
William Henry Harrison
Clinton and Malinda


Rapid City (Dakota du sud) (Nous couchons au même endroit que la journée 05) ============== 235 km (Cumulatif=3656) ============== Température : 29 degrés ============== Résumé : ============== Nous avons décidé de coucher 2 soirs de suite à Rapid City sachant qu’il y avait tellement de belles choses à voir dans cette région des « Black Hills ». Nous nous sommes donc baladés lentement dans ce secteur : ----------------- - Crazy Horse o Il s’agit d’une oeuvre d’art grandiose qui va au-delà du spectacle qui s’offre à nous. En faisant sculpter à même la montagne un chef indien (Crazy Horse) qui se tient sur son cheval, les dirigeants de ce peuple démontrent la fierté de leur race, de leurs valeurs et de leurs croyances. Ce monument qui est plus haut que la tour Eiffel, n’est pas complété ... read more
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Needles


Mitchell (Dakota du sud) à Rapid City (Dakota du sud) =============== 474 km (Cumulatif=3421) =============== Température : 25 à 28 degrés =============== Résumé : ---------------------- - La moto de Alain a atteint la prestigieuse marque de 100,000 km. Il a souligné le tout avec un petit coup de klaxon. Pas si pire pour une moto qui la veille a eu une crevaison et a fait un petit bout de chemin sur la remorque du garagiste. ---------------------- - Nous avons visité le secteur des Badlands. Bien qu’on croirait apercevoir un paysage lunaire, il s’agit en fait d’une larve volcanique érodée par 500,000 années. ---------------------- o Durant le trajet d’environ 50 km où nous avons parcouru le secteur des badlands, Michel s’est permis la même petite folie que Alain soit de circuler sans son casque et son manteau. ... read more
Photo 11
DSC02997
Photo 12


To many of the local Native American tribes, the Black Hills are a sacred space, the equivalent of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the hills sat on large quantities of gold, and miners ultimately desecrated them. Soon afterward, the hills became a tourist honey pot, attracting them by the thousands. These days the area is filled with attractions, ranging from the tasteful and informative to the inane. I explore some of them today. Wall Drug To start with, I needed breakfast, so I went to what is probably the biggest tourist trap of them all, Wall Drug. Wall Drug started as an actual drugstore run by Ted Husted in a small town near th... read more
Wall Drug interior
Jackalope
Wooly Mamouth fossil

North America » United States » South Dakota » Rapid City December 20th 2010

Our journey started in a Holiday Inn, in Rapid City, just 30 miles north east of Mount Rushmore. We woke up at 8.30am and were ready to leave and check out by 10am. It was snowing the night before, so we had to defrost the car. Fortunately we had cleared out the car, so the car was clean which was a nice change. The day started out cloudy, but by the time we were ready to leave, the sky was clear and light blue, with a strong winter sun. My first impressions of Mount Rushmore were surreal. I have been used to seeing it on television, on the internet and in the media. I felt slightly freaked out and thought it was quite creepy, but the mountain was amazing. We visited the gift shot, bought our ... read more
Our car in Rapid City, SD
Approaching Mt Rushmore
Roadsign


Geo: 44.0812, -103.231... read more




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