Another Monument

After a cool, rainy day on Tuesday, we decided to take a drive up to Mount Rushmore.  We took the road up through Custer State Park, part of which is called the Needles Highway because of the rock formations.  What a beautiful drive!  We drove through single lane tunnels carved through solid rock and over what they call "Pigtail Bridges".  You drive over the bridge, then make a tight circle and go under and you're headed the other direction. Every so often, we would catch a glimpse of Mount Rushmore - it was awesome!

The entrance to the main viewing area has flags from each of the states.  There were tons of people there, from all over the world.  We went on a trail that gave me the opportunity to take pictures from every angle.

And, we went through the sculptor's studio area where they had a ranger talking about the men who worked on Mount Rushmore.  The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was 60 years old when he began it in 1927.  It took 14 years and $1,000,000 to complete.  He was a stickler for having the workers arrive at work on time, and would fire them regularly for lateness.  The foremen would rehire them later - one guy was fired and rehired 9 times.

This is the original model of Mount Rushmore.  The lower part of the carving was not done.  The views of the Black Hills are also beautiful from Mount Rushmore.

There is a lot of mica and quartz in the rocks around the southern Black Hills.  It makes the exposed rock, and even the dirt look like it has glitter sprinkled on it in the sunlight. 

It was a really fun trip, even though we had both seen Mount Rushmore before.

 

We are off to Yellowstone with Alycia & Lindsey Jablonski.  Meeting my brother Jeff & his wife Kathy at Devils Tower, so more to come!