Mount Rushmore
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2006
1
5
8
Trip End
Jun 18, 2006
Keystone,
South Dakota,
United States
Friday, June 16, 2006
After spending much of the morning at Rushmore, we headed out to Wyoming to see the Devil's Tower. We drove back through Spearfish, SD...mid-70s today rather than the 106 of yesterday. We also drove through Sturgis, which is known for an annual motorcycle rally. Not sure how that whole thing started, as it didn't look like Sturgis had much to offer-especially for Harley dudes
Devil's Tower closeup
.After about a 100-mile drive we got to Devil's Tower. This is the remains of an extinct volcano, and was the country's first national monument (1906). The cooled magma fractured into hexagonal tubes and the surrounding land was eroded away. The Indian tribes from this area have various legends explaining the origins of the tower, mostly involving a bear clawing the sides. Looking at the monument, it is easy to see where that idea came from. Near the entrance of the park is a prairie dog town very much like the ones we saw yesterday. Once we reached the visitors center, we walked (sometimes up and down steep inclines) on a 1.3-mile trail around the base of the monument. The tower itself is 865-feet tall, and we were able to see 2 groups of climbers on the tower, with one person already at the top. After careful consideration, we decided to stay at ground level.
We drove back to South Dakota and still had about half of the afternoon left so we went to check out Thunder Head underground falls. This is the remains of a 600-foot long gold mine that was used until a blast went through to a spring inside the mountain. This left a 30-foot waterfall inside of the mine and a rapid stream leading out of it, leaving the mine unusable. Now they have a walkway down the entire mine, and you can walk down to the waterfall
Devil's Tower from a distance
. It is incredibly loud in such a confined space. The stream from the mine leads to another waterfall that joins into an existing stream outside. The scenery outside of the mine was very pretty.On our way back to Keystone we decided to stop at Cosmos, which is an area that appears to break the laws of physics. They say there are 3 "vortices" that have a different gravitational pull in those small areas. The trees in those spots even grow sideways. There are oddly-built shacks built on 2 of the sites where the guides go through demonstrations of the oddities of the area. Now, they built the shacks at weird angles which makes it hard to completely sort things out, but they demonstrated water and tennis balls rolling up hill, and it felt like we were being pulled sideways. Additionally, there were demonstrations where people in our little tour group appeared to change relative heights. To appease us skeptics, they had builder's levels (the kind with the little bubbles in the ruler) and tennis balls that stayed in place to prove that the areas where we were doing the height demonstrations were level. Not sure what all was going on, but it certainly was interesting.
We then went back to Keystone to get some dinner. Now, if you're wondering what Mexican food in South Dakota is like, it involves French fries and ranch dressing...minus any chips and dip as appetizers
Mt Rushmore
. The food was fine, but definitely not like any Mexican food found farther south.After dinner and some downtime in the hotel, we returned to Mount Rushmore for their evening lighting "show." The park service had Boy Scout troops to start off by raising, and then at the end lowering, and folding the flag. There was a film shown about the monument and the four presidents on it. Then they had all veterans and current military people come down to the front of the outdoor auditorium to give their name, years of service, and branch of the military. There were about 50 people who went up. At the end, the lights for the monument were turned on. Overall, it was pretty dramatic.
