Day 16 - Mt. Rushmore tours

"Oh beautiful for spacious skies", the sky is such a beautiful shade of blue here and very few clouds. Today we went back to Mt. Rushmore to take a few more pictures this morning. After our photo shoot, took the Needle highway, so called due to the many rock formations. A few times we had to drive thru a tunnel, one lane only, honk your horn on the way thru. We went to Custer State Park, had lunch in a little grocery store. They had a lunch counter, made me a fresh green salad and Ken a fresh hamburger, Mickey D's eat your heart out.
We wanted to see the wild animals so took the wild animal loop, saw about six buffalo, then some antelope, some very friendly donkeys, one prairie dog and some wild turkeys. We were really high, altitude over 5400. Drove back to Keystone and went for a swim. It was 86 here today and hot. For dinner we went back to the restaurant we went to last night. Food again very good. After dinner went back to Mt. Rushmore for the evening ceremonies. Tomorrow have to change motels but was fortunate to find a great room for the same price at a nicer hotel. Haven't decided what we'll do for fun, but plan to start the day at the laundromat, whats nicer than clean clothes? S



























It was a great day for a drive around this area of the country. From granite hillsides, towering spires of granite, meadows, sandstone cliffs, forests, and red clay hills, it was quite a change of scenery during our sightseeing tour today. The tunnels cut through the granite spires were really narrow, and lots of paint scrapes in the interiors of the tunnels. Glad we didn't leave any Torch Red paint from the Vette.

We looked and looked for wildlife, and finally figured all the deer, antelope, and buffalo must have gone to New Hampshire on vacation, but suddenly as we came around a corner, there were six buffalo right beside the road. They weren't the least bit interested in us, thank God. They are huge. Later saw antelope along the road in several places and then saw wild donkeys in about six or seven places. The donkeys are very tame and people feed them all the time. They are always blocking the roads and try to get tourists to feed them.

The Needle Highway was really a narrow road with barely enough room for traffic going in opposite directions. Very sharp curves, and in a couple of areas, we crossed wooden bridges only to curve immediately under the bridge we just crossed. Very beautiful scenery and changing all the time. Finally back to Keystone to cool our jets for a while.

The presentation at the Mt. Rushmore amphitheater was very touching. A park ranger gave a speech and then they showed a movie when it got dark. When the movie was over, they illuminated the monument and everyone stood and sang the National Anthem. They then invited all veterans to go down to the stage and after they lowered the American flag, they had each veteran tell his name and branch of service. Very touching with a lot of Korean and Viet Nam vets, but also a couple of WWII vets too. K