Mt. Rushmore During the Day: Monday, July 11, 2011

I woke up this morning feeling good.  There were some animals making noise again around 5:45 or 6 but I fell back asleep.  My alarm went off at 8.  I re-set it for 8:30.  And then 9.  When it went off at 9 I remember feeling like the tent was getting warm and comfortable.  By like 9:10 I thought I might die from the heat.  I realized the sun was beaming on the side of the tent.  I got up.

 

Mt. Rushmore was different in the day.  I was really glad I went at night because the atmosphere was different.  And it was much cooler at night.  I am continually amazed at the number of foreigners at each of these monuments and parks.  You can’t just ask anyone to take your picture… Anyway, I found some people that wanted me to take their picture and then I asked them to take mine.  Once I reviewed my pictures I realized I hadn’t looked in a mirror yet!  It’s not like I had a mirror in my tent.  So my hair was a little crazy (I included the good and bad pics below).  

They have a good museum set up at the monument.  I poked around and also watched a short video on the construction of the project.  When you are standing there below the monument the faces don’t look like they are 60 feet tall but then you see a picture of a worker rappelling off of a nose and you get an appreciation for their size!

From there I went to a fun road that had been recommended by the people camping next to me the previous night.  It is called Needles Highway.  There were a lot of switch-backs and several tunnels that were very (and I mean very) narrow.  It was a good ride.

From there I set out for the far east side of South Dakota.  I was on two-lane roads for most of the day.  At one point I turn on this road and there is a big sign about construction down the way.  It says that there is a 15 mile stretch of road that is rocks and dirt.  I was hoping I would turn off the road before I hit the mess.  I didn’t.  For the last 9 miles that I am driving on this road I am going about 10 mph.  They were wetting down the road to keep dust low so I am driving on muddy gravel.  The back of the Cobra is sliding around and I bottomed out several times.  A few miles after I got off this road I stopped at a gas station.  I realized in the parking lot that I might be a minority here.  Once inside the gas station it was confirmed that I was the only white person in the building (out of maybe 50 people).  All the rest were Native Americans. 

After that, it was a lot of driving.  I ended up stopping in Mitchell, North Dakota.  It is famous for it’s corn palace.  I plan to visit today so look for pictures soon…

Mileage: Starting 78,282 & Ending 78,730= 448 miles

Stayed in Mitchell, North Dakota

States Visited: North Dakota

Mt. Rushmore.  One neat fact: they had to blast through a lot of rock to get to granite good enough to carve.  The face of Roosevelt is actually 75 feet in from the original mountainside:

Driving through a tunnel on Needles Highway:

Mt. Rushmore (with crazy hair):

Mt. Rushmore:

Me with slightly less crazy hair:

That is one big nose:

Another shot of the monument:

Crazy dirt road:

Cobra getting dirtier and dirtier: