We started off the day, at the suggestion of Jay
and Nate (Thanks guys!) at the Badlands. Since we planned it this way, our hotel was only
10 minutes away from the north entrance. All I can say is "Wow." It
really was, as Jay described it "Like the Grand Canyon in reverse" - There were
tons of great rock formations and amazing striations in the rock. The thumbnail
above does not do it justice - Click for the full 180 degree panorama. It's worth
the price of admission. |
For once I was disappointed by the size. For some reason I had always imagined Mt.
Rushmore to be bigger. Not that it isn't pretty, or an amazing feat of sculpture,
but it just looks so small. It's also way up high on a mountain. Not
that I'm complaining too much. We also went down the mountain a ways and checked out
the "Sculptor's Studio" which had the original plaster models which were used to
help the workers carve the thing out. |
The Crazy Horse Monument is only 30 minutes away from Mt. Rushmore and we couldn't pass it
up. We were disappointed to learn that the part that was "Finished" was
the face, barely visible from the (far away) viewing area. It seems that the
monument is an ongoing project that will look like the statue to the right. It is a
very ambitious project, but one that will be extremely cool when it's finished.
There was a museum at the viewing area which had some interesting stuff, like pictures and
a time-line. They plan to have a big university and hospital at the base of the
monument when it's finished. Dodi and I will have to go back when it's finished. |
There was this amazing statue of two horses fighting at the Crazy
Horse Monument. It had a round base, so I couldn't help but make an animated GIF out
of it. Because I chose to make it larger than usual, I put it on a separate page -
Click the image to the left to get the Animated version. |
When I was 10 or so my family went on a cross
country trek in a motor home. We must have stopped at every bubbling mud hole across
all of the country. Geothermal was our watchword. Of all the bubbling mud that
I had the opportunity to see, one place stuck in my mind -> Thermopolis.
There is an RV park there called "The Fountain of Youth RV Park" which has an
Olympic swimming pool sized pool filled with Hot Springs water. You get to swim in
it. That was where we headed for the night - I'm glad I remembered it right at that
time, 'cause it turns out it was only 300 miles from Crazy Horse. |
