Got up this morning and ate breakfast. Mmmm, love those waffles. We headed out to see the Gutzon Borglum museum. This was a self guided tour about the man and the history of the mountain. This really is a must see activity.
After our visit to the museum, we drove out to Jewel Cave National Park. We arrived about two hours early so we decided to take a walk that was listed as 3.5 miles (non-strenuous). Little did we know it was actually quite strenuous, as there were several dozen trees that had fallen across the paths making this a very difficult trail to navigate. We got back to the visitors center too late to take the cave tour. Neither Angie nor I wanted to stay another two hours to wait for the next tour.
We headed back to the city of Custer for lunch. We ate at the Sage Grill. A very nice little wine bar. Everything looked brand new (even the bathrooms) so we figured they just built place. Angie had a grill chicken sandwich and I had a meat-loaf sandwich.
After lunch Angie stopped at the post-office that was right next door. We picked up some postcard stamps. On the way out I noticed a flyer for the MS150 bike ride. Pretty cool that in this relatively small town they have a ride.
Back up the freeway to Crazy Horse Mountain. This is a monument to the native american indians and their heros. Several people told me before I went on this trip that this was not worth seeing. I have to disagree whole heartily. Some are put off by the price, $14 per person, but you have to remember that this monument is privately funded. The foundation refuses to accept funding from the US government or any others. Their philosophy is that this monument will be paid for and funded by those people that come to see it. This way it will truely be a monument for and by the people.
We started our tour with a history of the man who started building the monument, Korczak Ziolkowski. This gave you a better understanding of why they are building this monument and why a simple stone face has turned into a 3-D in the round monument.
Although the original sculptor is now dead his wife and children continue the project. They are committed to continuing the work their father started and will hand it down to their children. When asked “when will it be finished”, their reply is always the same… “It depends on money, weather and advances in technology” So basically, it will be done when it’s done 😉
The monument is so large mount rushmore pales in comparison. The entire mountain would fit in crazy horse’s hair. The construction crew works two eight hour shifts five days a week. They do blasting on an average of twice a week. We just missed a blast today. The visitors center has a lot of exhibits and pictures. From inside and outside in the courtyard, there is a scale model of the monument that is aligned with the actual mountain.
You can visit the living room of the family home and see some of the models and artwork. The rest of the house is off limits because it is still occupied by his wife.
After touring the visitors center we took a short bus ride up to the closer viewing area. Along this drive we saw a beaver and several marmosets. What is it with our vacation and ground rodents?
When the mountain is done, there are plans to build a grand visitors center that will include a large cultural center as well as a University. This is a truly amazing project. I strongly encourage you to come visit this monument. Come see how it all started with one man’s vision and attitude of “What else would I do :-)”
On a side note, while touring his home we read a letter from Gutzon Borglum terminating his employment on the mount rushmore project. Apparently Gutzon wanted people who had little or no experience in sculpting so he could train them to do things his way. I guess he had too much experience carving stone to be retrainable. So this just goes to show you, when one door closes, another one opens.
I have uploaded a few images here:
Crazy Horse Image 1
Crazy Horse Image 2
Crazy Horse Image 3
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Crazy Horse Image 10
After we finished touring the Crazy Horse monument we drove back up to Hill City. On the way we stopped at the US forestry office to get our passport stamp for the black hills. Just outside of the town is a the Prairie Berry Winery. We stopped in to taste some wine. This winery has some unique offerings. We both agreed that we like the cascade falls and disliked the ChokeCherry wine.
We ended up buying a few bottles to take home with us. Maybe the next time your over you can convince us to open one of them. The neat thing is that most of their wines, while listed as dry, are semi-sweet. So both Angie and I liked them.
After wine tasting we drove back to mount rushmore. This time, everything was open so we could tour the visitor center.
First things first, we stopped at the visitors office to get our passport stamp. Then we decided to hike the 1.5 mile presidents trail. This included almost 300 steps up to the base of the rubble pile.
We got some incredible shots of the faces of the presidents from this trail. I have listed them here for easy access:
Mount Rushmore Image 1
Mount Rushmore Image 2
Mount Rushmore Image 3
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Mount Rushmore Image 17
After spending time at the monument, we went back into keystone to hunt down dinner. We found a place we could order a pizza. The local food is not really to our liking, but I think there is a city rule that all dinners come with free all-you-can-eat soup and salad bars.
We headed back to the hotel after dinner and hit the spa to unwind from all the walking we did today.