The trip to South Dakota

Well, many of us may know the famous Mount Rushmore. For those who do not know what it is - it is a small mount carved with the faces of four of American Presidents - George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Mt. Rushmore is popularly called as the Shrine of Democracy because it houses the four Presidents who fought for democracy.




Mount Rushmore is in the State of South Dakota. It is around 20 miles south of a big City of South Dakota called Rapid City.



Last weekend during the long weekend of Labor day we travelled to South Dakota. This is my second visit to Mt. Rushmore. Last year we headed along with a group of friends without minding forecasts in the early winter (mid-october). Going to Mount Rushmore we found that the Presidents were not ready to look into us - just kidding - it was so foggy that we did not even able to see the Mount - leave along gazing at the Presidents. We just took some pics and returned back empty-eyed.


This time we decided to see the Presidents come-what-may and took our family along with us. The drive was a long one from Lincoln, NE from where we started. We had a reservation at Days Inn at Custer a small place still south of Mount Rushmore.

On Saturday afternoon we headed to the Rushmore memorial and we had a good glimpse of the Presidents this time.

Then we headed to Crazy Horse memorial which is very close by - say 10 miles. The crazy horse memorial is under construction from 1908 and is celebrating its 100 years. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski interestingly worked for Mt. Rushmore and then later started working on this to honor the native Americans. The carving is being done as a family affair and we learnt that they turned down the Federal contribution. If completed it will be the biggest monument carved in a mountain.



Next day we went to couple of caves - Jewel Cave and Wind Caves. The Jewel Cave is said to be the second longest cave in the world spanning 143 miles. We were told that the Mammoth Cave in Turkey is the longest one. We could not get admission to the regular tours as they were sold out. Luckily we could get ticket to a Discovery Talk tour. This just takes us to one of the big halls of the cave and we were just introduced to the cave by the Ranger.


Next we headed to Wind caves, which is also one of the longest and complex caves in the world. Luckily we got admission to the last tour of the day. The cave has outstanding display of boxwork, an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs. Somehow my kid learnt the word from the Ranger who was explaining things and all along of the tour he was yelling box work whenever he saw on the walls.

The last day of the tour it was retreat to our den. On the way we took the scenic by-pass through the Badlands. Badlands is a national park in South Dakota which has the oldest fossils that were found out. Also the scenic by pass provides extraordinary glimpses of hills with varying shades.


That brought us the end of the long tour and we headed back to Lincoln looking for more rest and gear up for much official hullaballo ahead of us.