09/10/21 Friday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 10
Beaver Lake Campground
Custer, SD
Site I
Woke up and my legs are so sore from those stone stairs that went on forever at Mt. Rushmore. But so worth it.
Went back to Mt. Rushmore this morning to get my passport stamp from the Sculptor Studio. It was closed yesterday by the time we got to it during the hike/walk around the park. We stayed for the ranger talk about the working sculpture the artist Gutzon Borglum created to work from. When we left we walked up those same stone steps we did yesterday. A bit easier today. Went to the gift shop to pick up a few things and Barry stayed outside and people watched. He was very entertained.
to get to the top of the mountain
Next stop was the Crazy Horse Monument., $30 to get in. Had lunch right away. Got my passport stamped even though this is not a National Monument. Very extensive museums, great movie, cultural center, dance performances from a local native american indian group. Beautiful Costumes. Took a bus ride to get closer to the monument. The driver was from one of the tribes and he gave us great information at a stop we were able to get at out and take photos.
Crazy Horse has 1M+ visitors a year and Mt. Rushmore has 3M+ a year. The tribes feel they need to get the horses head done in the next 5 years to get more visitors. They started out with one bus and now have 6 running daily. He talked about the new tools they now have that makes the carving go much faster. While he was talking this guy took out a drone and flew it toward the monument. Barry and I could not believe it. There are signs posted everywhere and on the brochures "No Drones Allowed." Right away an official looking man appeared out of nowhere to shut him down and asked him for his drone footage. Idiot! The driver said he never had that happened before.
 |
| Bus stop where some guy took out his drone. I should of got a photo of him but I was in shock. |
Had a few hours to kill before the Legends in Light laser light show on the monument so we watched the Rachel Maddow show in the jeep so we could sit in comfy seats. I posted this on facebook. Great to have technology.
The light show was fabulous. I decided not to take pictures of the light show. I didn't want to miss any of it. Met some people from Texas that sat next to us and they paid the $125 a piece to be able to take a tour where you get to stand on the arm of Crazy Horse. She showed us some great photos they took. On our way out we picked out 2 stones from the display of granite you're allowed to take. The rocks are not too big and are from the rubble when they blast a section from the mountain. Again, if you have a chance to visit Crazy Horse please do so. There is much to see.
 |
| Additional sculpture - stallions fighting |
 |
| Loved this story behind this sculpture |
The nerve of the drone operator!
ReplyDeleteStupidity is everywhere.
DeleteStupid!
Delete