In the second part of my mid west America trip, I was in South Dakota. This is a state that has never got onto my radar, and certainly not a state that I had ever planned to visit. It's not that I have anything against it, it's just that with America being so massive, there's so many places to visit.
Mount Rushmore at day
Snowpea, Mary and I started our day in South Dakota at Mount Rushmore. Normally I'm not a big fan of man made structures and wasn't too bothered about visiting here or not. The rest of my group had it on their list from the beginning of the trip. Oh well, I guess if it's one of America's most popular landmark I'd better tick the box as well.
I have to admit, as I entered the park, and walked towards the massive sculptures of the four previous US presidents, the view was pretty impressive. The 50 state flags, along with the flags of Washington DC, and other territories and commonwealth lined both sides of the Avenue of Flags. They were arranged in alphabetical order. I have no personal affiliation with any of the states so wasn't looking for any state in particular, but found it interesting to look for the sequence of each state's accession to the union.
There's a very good visitor centre at the site, and has a lot of information about how this project came about. I was particularly interested to read about how they carved the 60 feet tall sculptures of the four presidents and why they chose those four particular men.
Custer Park
Here you can just about see the little opening of one the tunnels. They literally carved a hole through a massive rock for vehicles to pass through. I wonder why they didn't just blow up the rock. Seriously, it was a crazy drive, but Snowpea and Mary were loving it and having the time of their life.
Once we were inside Custer Park, we did another scenic drive called Wildlife Loop Road. It really lived up to its name. We had to stop quite a few times to let the animals pass by. These photos were taken from inside our vehicle.
Anyway, the sight of so many bisons is a really impressive scene. They where just lazing around minding their own business, oblivious of us tourists driving around starring at them.
Badlands National Park
The highlight of my day, and one of my most favourite park of the whole trip is Badlands National Park. This is another case of where I had no expectation, and the outcome was more than everything I could have wished for.
After Custer Park, there wasn't much to do nearby and someone suggested Badlands. It was about an hour and half away. I thought this would be another park with mountain scenery. Boy, was I wrong! The photos I show you doesn't do the park justice at all.
Badlands is a 244 acres park with spectacular geological formation that dates back to 75 million years ago. Different layers of rocks deposited on top of one another from 75 million to 28 million years ago, creating a very unique structure like layers of cake. Then, about half a million years ago, the rivers started to make their way into the area, eroding the rocks. And what we have today is this incredible landscape. Actually, Badlands is so badass cool, that it deserves it's own post. That will follow soon. Here's some taster for you first.
Mount Rushmore at night
We started our day at Mount Rushmore and finished at the same location 12 hours later. The presidents' sculptures are lit up every night in the summer and we went back to see it after our day out. It was quite eerie as we were the only people there, plus it was freezing cold at night. And by freezing cold, I really mean it, it was actually zero degrees!! The four great men were starring straight at us, the flags flapping in the wind, like they were protecting the country. Quite a view to wrap up my day, and this post.
You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below
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Beautiful everything looks simple and neat, would love to go on this konda adventure am glad you enjoyed your trip
Thanks, it's a lovely trip, so much variety
Thats great to know
Now that's a place I would love to visit. That and the badlands!
I'd definitely recommend the Badlands, it's so surreal ,loved it
Even the name, toptastic!!
The enormous sculpture is a popular place been seeing in postcards.. I envy Snowpea and Mary hehe.. I wish I could see America too someday
!LADY
It's very spectacular when you're standing in front of it, really quite something
Haha where's there's warning there's always one who do it anyways. Some get out of there vehicles to take pictures. Not this past year when I visited Custer State Park but a few years ago we witnessed a large herd charging. You could feel the ground rumbling as they passed all around our a car, quite a nervous memory. There were a few others who were parked nearby, fournately no bodies car got bucked.
Did you visit any of the caves? The closest one in this area was Rushmore Cave. Another sculpture in the area is Crazy Horse monument but it's unfinished. One other place nearby I enjoyed was 1880 Train where you can purchase a ride on a slow scenic view of the black hills via a steam engine train.
Thanks for sharing I enjoyed your post how could I not I grew up in South Dakota 😊 Look forward to your future ones especially the Bad Lands. Everytime I travel down I-90 I always stop there. No brainer for me as I get in free because I'm a veteran.
So I was in your neck of the woods! Glad you enjoyed reading it. I always find it fun reading others writing about my home city and how they see things differently.
I know I only saw a very small part of SD but it was an eye opener. Quite a lot of things were shut when I was there as we're probably a few weeks too early for the summer season. Good and bad, less crowds but we couldn't see a few things, like the 1880 train, also rodeo.
I can imagine the herd of bisons charging can be quite a scene, must be nerve wrecking being in the middle of it all, but an amazing experience.
The NPS here is really great and very good value for what it offers. We went to 7 and only paid $80 for the whole group. Normally we'd pay like £10-£20 per person for entrance to any decent place in UK.
The rest will follow soon.. I hope
Very true Mount Rushmore is crazy busy in the summer. I haven't been to the inside of the entrance for quite sometime . It's great it can be viewed from so many places. I went in August last year, so hot it was near 38° C. I guess the best time to go would be early May and now before the kiddos get out of school, not always possible though.
Yes the NPS is great in the region. The park rangers and other staff are very knowledgeable and give good advice. That's a good group package price you got. I like how the drive parks charge by the vehicle and not by person which is also awesome 😊
I've been to the east and west coast, but not far inland. The US is vast and varied. The people who set out to travel across it did not have it easy and places like the Badlands must have been frustrating for them. Of course others were already living there.
It's amazing that the bison were almost wiped out by settlers, but I hope they are recovering now.
Mount Rushmore is impressive, but I find the idea of giant monuments to dead guys a bit strange. Mind you, other countries do it for the current dictator.
Enjoy your trip.
Previously I'd only been to the east and west coast main cities as well. We done loads of driving this time, or at least a lot for us Brits, but for the locals its nothing. I was talking to a ranger at one of the parks and he drove his RV for 2000 miles from Texas to be a volunteer for the season.
Learned lots of interesting things as usual from this trip
America has so much to see! Impressive story! The landscape is so different - snowy mountains, and then almost a desert.
I am glad to see your little girls enjoyed their journey. Sending my !HUG and much !LUV to Snowpea, Mary and you 😊
I sent 1.0 HUG on behalf of @zirochka.
(1/3)
The little girls are enjoying themselves a lot, especially in the cold snowy mountains and they send their love to you!
XO
Spotting animals in their normal habitat is one of the biggest blessings during a trip in my opinion. Of course, you won't be able to see every single animal alive on this planet, but nothing compares to this bliss. It just brings another genuine touch to the overall experience.
The bisons were definitely the highlight, I'm so glad the park ranger told me about the loop road otherwise I wouldn't have known about it. If we came at the right season we could have seen a lot of elks as well, but sadly like you say we can't see everything
Wow!! That looks really amazing! I guess it was a little trip full of history! Thanks a lot for sharing!!
America may have a short history compared to many other countries but still found it had lots of interesting facts and stories
I would love to go on adventure like this one, just that my tight work schedule will not permit it.
There is nothing like being self employed.
Work hard to play hard later!
That's really awesome. It looks like you are having a fantastic time! Can you imagine what the plains must have looked like back in the day when they were just teaming with buffalo. Back before they were all killed off? It must have been magnificent. I don't think we are going to make it into South Dakota on our trip this summer. We will have to save that for another excursion out there!
I'm sure you have plenty of opportunities in the future. Now I understand why many Americans haven't been out of the country, there's so much to see here!
I know right! I feel like my wife and I could travel for the rest of our lives and still not see everything. I mean, we are still just now discovering new things in our own state. Before last weekend I never would have known that the largest calcite mine is in Michigan. Now I know and have photos in my latest post to prove it! I do hope to get to Europe one day, but if I don't, I'm glad we have so much available to us here.
You guys have so much landscape here, it's amazing. I think what you're lacking are historical buildings like more than three hundred years old. If that's your thing, then you'd definitely need to cross the pond
For sure, while there may have been people here back then, they weren't the sort to make all those big structures like you have over there.
We went there a couple years ago. I really enjoyed the helicopter tour over the badlands and around the Rushmore/Crazy Horse. Definitely worth it if you get a chance to take one while you're there.
I've never done a helicopter ride before, I can imagine how cool it would be over Rushmore and Badlands. I'll probably treat myself one day at one awesome place
Cannot believe I missed that you are in the US! Safe travels and have fun over there! This is a part of the States that I haven´t been to, very cool places :)
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This is my big trip this year, am really enjoying myself. Seeing and experiencing loads of interesting things and places
This trip has been quite an adventure. Huge sculptures, dangerous roads, wildlife, geological formations millions of years old, extreme temperatures...a little bit of everything. You 3 are having a great time!!! Keep having fun.
Thanks! This is just the beginning, still have lots more to come. I will have to work hard to write all the posts before I forget about everything
Make notes 😂🤣. We will have a lot to read!!!
I've only been to see Mount Rushmore once, and I was a child then. I do remember it looking so big and I wondered how that could have been done by men.
The 1959 film "North by Northwest," starring Cary Grant has a scene there.
It was very interesting to learn how they created the 6ft models first and then scaled everything 10x when carving, what a feat!
I'm not aware of the film North by Northwest, I bet if I go and watch a lot of American movie now I'm going to be shouting I been here, I been there all the time 😀☺️
You probably would see a lot of where you have been in American movies. "North by Northwest" is an old film (1959). I have only seen it once all the way through. I usually came in late and saw it close to the "Mount Rushmore" scene.
I know there are other films that have Mount Rushmore in them, too, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.
So cool. I still need to go to the Dakotas. I have heard really good things about Badlands and want to see it!
The Badlands are so different from all the other parks, I mean they're all stunning in their own way, but Badlands is like a quiet beauty that doesn't shout as loud as the others
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Hey,
You're gonna have to start thinking about knitting clothes for Snowpea and Mary according to the weather of the places they visit because it was 13 degrees Celsius there, I think maybe they'll be a bit hot in those outfits.
😂
(I don't believe you, zero degrees? 😁... well yeah. I saw them there in the sun and went to look it up on the Internet, but the website I saw wasn't reliable.)
I'm going to sleep. 😏
When I knit Snowpea and Mary a new outfit, I'll knit you a matching one so you girls can go party together 💃
😂🤭 Oh what a detail... It must be fun to go out together and combined.
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