Devil's Tower and Mount Rushmore

Sorry we haven't blogged about our progress across the country in a couple days. We had good intentions of blogging while in the car and then posting when we get to our hotel room. It wasn't for lack of time in the car because we had plenty of that. Never the less here is the next stage of our trip back home.

Our plan was to visit Devil's Tower, cross the state line and see Mt. Rushmore, and then make it half way across the state of South Dakota to a town called Marshall. We really didn't make it close. It took a lot longer to cross Wyoming and get to Devil Towers. Once we drove over the ridge and saw it off in the distance it made the slight detour all worth it. We took some pictures as we drove towards the base of it and then were able to get a good close of look once we got there. Because we were on a little bit of a time crunch we didn't take the hike around the entire tower although we were able to drive around and see it from all sides. According to the Indian legend the sides of the tower were clawed by a bear trying to reach the tribe on the top. It was a tremendous sight to see and we are glad that we made the trip over to see it.

Our next stop was to head just over the boarder and see Mt. Rushmore. Again it took a little longer than we thought to get there. But after driving south of Rapid City into Keystone we rounded that mountain and were amazed by the sight we saw. Both Claire and I had been to Mt. Rushmore in the past but it had been years for the both of us. When we got there we were surprised to see how it had changed. The first thing we noticed was the parking garage we parked in and then the enormous stone entrance that had flags representing each of the 50 states. There is also a large amphitheatre located at the base of the mountain. Our favorite change that was made was a presidential walk that took you around the base of the mountain and gave you multiple views of the faces. After taking the walking tour, browsing through the museum, watching a quick video about the design and construction of the faces we grabbed some ice cream and headed back out on the rode. By now it was getting late and we were still 3 or 4 hours from where we wanted to be by days end.

After driving a couple hours we decided to stay in a town called Wall South Dakota. For any of you who have traveled interstate 90 know what a Wall Drug sign is. For hundreds of mile in both directions you will see signs for this little tourist trap. They offer funny things like free ice water, fun for kids, 5 cent coffee, and free doughnuts for hunters. I had also been through this town on the same family vacation we went on to see Mt. Rushmore. It again peeked our curiosity and decided to stop there for the night. After some silly pictures in Wall Drug we found a grocery store and picked up somethings to take back for dinner.

It was a long day but the opportunity to see a couple national monuments was great. It was only day two and we had already seen a trips worth of sights. We still had a corn palace, and IKEA, and a Mall of America yet to visit. Stay tuned for those stories.