Rushmore or less

First let me say Mount Rushmore was the lynch pin in planning this whole trip. It was the only fixed location and date. It was the only spot I reserved a hotel in advance. The date was selected because Mount Rushmore does it's fireworks on the 3rd. I had been warn but the tourist literature that people arrive in the early morning to stake out a spot to view the fireworks at night.

So after Deadwood it's not much of a drive to get to Rushmore. We got there about noon. And it's worth noting that most other destinations we barely reached before the light was lost. We got to Grand Canyon, Arches and Devil's Tower around 4pm. (Which is gorgeous light while it lasts.)

Once you're within a few miles you see a garish tourist trap boardwalk style main street offering all the usual things only a vacationer would buy.

The road bends a bit and then you see it. And it's too small. Okay the heads are 40 feet high but compared to a mountain that's not much really. And the most famous view makes the heads look more isolated than they are. We all know politicains like a low camera angle so they can appear larger and more powerful well so do these four dead presidents.

A more common view from the road shows all the rock around them including the rock above the tops of their heads. They look like toys.

As we reached the parking we were told it was full. People parked nearly a mile down the mountain and hiked back up with their gear. Already underwhelmed by the sight of the monument we couldn't bring ourselves to camp out at its base for 8 hours. So we decide we could miss the fireworks and drove on to the Needles Highway.