The Five Hobos: Black Hills and Mount Rushmore

Our first glimpse of Mt. Rushmore.

We packed a lot into one little day today. We had originally planned for a one-night stay off the highway and get back on the road quickly toward Yellowstone, but after driving trudging through South Dakota, we decided two nights and day to explore The Black Hills were what we needed. I'm really glad we stopped to see this lovely area.

One of several "pigtails" on
this crazy road.

The park we stopped at was close to Mount Rushmore and Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway, as well as Custer State Park, so we spent most of the day driving again anyway. haha. But at least not pulling a trailer.

This roadway is amazing. The fact that someone can up with some of the ideas is incredible enough, but that they actually managed to construct it and still have it in use today... wow. It reminds me something a child would come up with when building roads with those train table blocks, where they wind all over and under themselves in crazy patterns. There are tunnels blasted through rock that are just wide enough to fit a vehicle. I mean, literally, there were two where we had just inches on either side of our mirrors. But the scenery is incredible. And they lined all the tunnels up to frame the view of Mt. Rushmore as you go through, so it's really an amazing feat.

So after meandering through this amusement park ride of a road, we got to Mt. Rushmore park. We actually didn't go in, because although it's free to enter, it's $11 to park. Since we only had one day and there was so much to see, we just took more pictures from closer up and moved on.

The heads.

Of course, they tried
to climb it.

After leaving "the heads", we went to Custer, SD, and then headed toward Custer State Park, only to be met by a brake warning light on the truck. Ugh. Not again. After reading the possible causes, we thought it prudent to have it checked out, so back to town we went. We found a garage that said they could look at it today, so we took our cooler and waited at the town park, then walked around a bit. After about an hour and a half, we got the report that the brakes were fine. The code was something about wheels spinning and could be from dust or maybe a faulty sensor, but nothing that was a real problem. Big sigh of relief.

After that little anxiety attack, we headed back to the state park in search of bison. The first thing we found was the Needles Highway. WOW! We pulled over to check out these amazing rocks close up and it felt like being on an alien landscape. We climbed and enjoyed the view for awhile. Jim and Kate took a few tries at climbing some, of course. Then we headed through the first super narrow tunnel. More scenic views, followed by a lot of construction and we finally arrived at The Wildlife Loop where we were told the bison were likely to be. They didn't disappoint. We came around a turn, and there they were. A herd of these huge animals, just grazing on the plains, as they would have been doing 200 years ago. It was incredible.

Are we going to fit
through that?

After enjoying the bison, we went on to find the "park beggars" i.e. the burros. These are descendants of the burros used to construct Rushmore and the road. When they were finished working, they were released, and they have lived in the park ever since. Unlike the native wildlife, you can feed and interract with these guys, so they know the magic cars bring them treats and come right up to the window and take food from your hand. We got a big kick out that.

More driving, more scenery, and we finished the day by taking a tour of The Big Thunder Gold Mine in Keystone, SD. After the very amusing tour, we got to pan for gold and found some flakes. Another big hit with the kids. Exhausted, we headed back to the trailer for dinner and fell into bed exhausted. Tomorrow, we leave this beautiful area and head to Wyoming. We are still debating our route. The more scenic, but mountainous, or the safer, but less scenic. Stay tuned.