Day 10

Our first stop of the day was a visit to Wind Cave National Park. On the way we caught a view of Mount Rushmore and Andrew said "That is the coolest thing I have seen in my life." You really never can tell with that kid. 

I have to say there was a pretty great profile shot of George Washington:

We also passed these guys on our way into the park:

We arrived at the Wind Cave in time to get the 10am tour and it really was amazing. I can't do it justice with these photos. But this was our ranger at the entrance to the cave:

You go down 300 steps to get to the cave system:

We saw a lot of boxwork: The Wind Cave has 90% of the world's boxwork and the rock is so fragile it would break like a potato chip!:

After our awesome cave tour we went on to see the Crazy Horse Memorial and have lunch:

Here is how it is planned to look when it is finished: It has a long way to go.

I was so pleased with this picnic spot and not a single member of my family ate at it, they all just wandered around:

The Crazy Horse memorial is so large that the entire of Mount Rushmore could fit into just the head area:

It's an impressive monument but I was rather creeped out by the cult-like aspect of the Ziolkowski family that has been carving it since the beginning and how the entire museum and place is more about them than the Native Americans they are meant to be supporting.

Accidental filter again but it gave a better outline of the eventual sculpture:

Anyhow, we made our final stop of the day at Mount Rushmore. After the cheesiness of the area and the quality of our meal last night I was not expecting much but I was actually pretty impressed.

Hey guys look behind you!:

Their stuffed animals seem pretty interested though.

This is Mike's photo of us where he cut out Mount Rushmore. However you can see my knee injury from Yellowstone from when I fell face down on a gravel walkway. It's amazing my leg wasn't amputated!:

That's better!:

We even got Heath from the front and sort of smiling!:

In my attempt I cut off the top of George Washington's head but they both look so happy I am sure he won't mind:

After our photo shoot we walked the  President's Trail, which offered some great views, like up George Washington's nose:

Did you know?: 

Of course we had to grab ice cream after this. And to think I am wondering why my clothes are getting tighter. I can't imagine what will happen when we hit the Midwest!

This is Andrew after he fell in with a biker gang:

So while I love that photo, there also appears to be a huge motorcycle rally coming to South Dakota next week and by huge I mean half a million bikers. The place is already swarmed. 

At first it was pretty cool to see the motorcycles and all the paraphernalia but  after the 3000th Harley Davidson T-shirt it starts to get really old. And most of the motorcycles aren't even bikes but more like a combination between an RV and a lazyboy.  While I have really tried to assimilate myself into America's heartland (as my diet and coal-loving posts will attest to) I draw the line at this!

On our way into to Rushmore I spotted this formation and then I made Mike drive back so I could take a picture. This caused much hilarity in our car and Mike was unimpressed to say the least. The picture is blurry but I'll let you draw your own conclusions:

After I took the kids swimming as penance, they ended up having a movie and pizza night at the hotel while Mike and I got another terrible meal. The top rated restaurant in Keystone is a shaved ice stand - that says it all really. 

The kids ended up watching Gravity(!!!) and even they thought it was dumb although Andrew is pretty excited to tell his New York friends that he a) visited a cave b) saw a grown up movie about space. 

We have decided that while we are really glad we came and have now seen  Mount Rushmore it is definitely a place we only want to visit once and largely because the area is so crappy and overpriced. The caves were a really nice surprise though, I will say that.

Onto the Badlands tomorrow.