We started out this morning with a trip up to Mt. Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickcok and Calamity Jane are buried next to each other. A lot of the "characters" from the HBO show are buried up there.
Next, we headed over to Mt. Rushmore. I had been looking forward to this stop on the trip and it was definitely a sight worth seeing. However, I think I thought it would be bigger or more impressive in some way. Maybe I'm just getting jaded by all the amazing things we've seen on this trip. It was interesting, though, to learn about how the statue was carved. Apparently, after years of working on the mountain, the explosives experts were able to blow the rock apart within inches of the actual finished surface. The pavilion leading up to the main viewing area is nicely set up, with the flags of all 50 states flying along a pathway that leads to an overlook with a view toward the mountain. We had to try over and over again to find someone who could take a decent picture of us. For some reason, everyone we asked took pictures either without the mountain in it at all, or with heavy focus on the ground.
Continuing on our tour of mountain monuments, we headed to the Crazy Horse Memorial. This is a giant statue of Crazy Horse that has been under construction for about 50 years and is being built entirely with private funds. It's much bigger than Mt. Rushmore; in fact, the entirety of the Mt. Rushmore monument would fit inside Crazy Horse's head. We also saw some Indian dancing, which was kind of entertaining. I wish we could've seen them dynamite part of the mountain, but it didn' happen while we were there.We stopped in Rapid City, SD tonight and watched Evan Almighty. It was pretty disappointing. I guess it's a fun family movie; but it's really not very funny. There is a funny baboon who dances, though.
We're staying in a town called Wall tonight in South Dakota before we go to Badlands National Park tomorrow. This town is a real dump -- probably the worst town we've stayed in on the trip! This kind of got me thinking about what towns we've been in that were surprisingly good or bad. As I've said before, Fresno, CA; Medford, OR; and Wallace, ID are three of the squattieset places. But, we've also had some nice surprises. Eureka, CA was a great town with a quaint, relaxed feel. Jackson, WY was a nice litle resort town that seems like a fun place for a weekend vacation. Deadwood, SD was also a really fun place to spend a day. I think anyone could easily spend a weekend there and have a great time gambling and checking out the historical sites.
Unfortunately, Wall, SD is not one of the better places. But, tomorrow we should be seeing some great terrain. I think Badlands will be a little different from the parks we've been visiting recently, so hopefully it'll be a fun change.
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