Black Hills

We made it to Mt. Rushmore...well, almost. Here's how our day went. We left Rawlins, WY at 9:30 this morning. Had a great nights sleep, but we're were glad to leave that town. It's a great place to visit if you're feeling like you're on the low end of the intelligence totem pole. Believe me, we're not! They're all in Rawlins!

So before we hit the road, we put our Mount Rushmore destination into the GPS which came up with 3 option. One was all freeway but was almost 100 miles longer, but estimated 1 hour less on the road. Ok, so freeway driving in Wyoming at 75 mph can make a difference so we opted for the freeway route. The route took us north on Interstate 25, then across Interstate 90 to Rapid City, SD where we would cut down to the Mt. Rushmore area.

Sooooo, we're tooling along Interstate 90 and we see a sign for Rapid City, SD which is still 150 miles away. Then we see a commercial sign for Mt. Rushmore. This route would take us on to Route 16, which is a 2 lane country road running next to a railroad, but it's 40 shorter. So we went for it ... the road was straight and as flat as a pancake. So maybe not all the fools are in Rawlins.

Well, we made it to the Black Hills and again we were amazed at the beauty of this area. We're still at 5000+ feet and the hills are not as majestic as the Rockies. But they're beautiful. Because we came in on the west side of the Black Hills we stopped at the Crazy Horse Monument first. That's the new mountain sculpture honoring Native Americans. The weather wasn't too cooperative, rain and fog, so the mountain was a bit hazy. The sculpture is supported by donations, and is still a work in progress with no completion date. The four heads of Mt Rushmore fit into just the head portion of Crazy Horse. It is huge!

Traveling is tiring. I don't know how truckers do this for a living. After a pizza dinner we checked into our hotel to call it a day. Hoping to hit it early tomorrow morning to see the presidents, then on to Wisconsin.

Later.