Rapid City--Mountain Art

Al and I took the "long way" to Minot, North Dakota and passed through Rapid City, South Dakota. (The "long way" was only 2 hours more...) I'd never been there and I wanted to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Al wanted to go to Reptile Gardens. So in my head, Rapid City was a little town where they happened to have a great reptile zoo and some artwork carved into the mountain.

I was so wrong! There is so much to do there! First, there's the natural stuff: caves to explore, dinosaur digs, and this plase called Cosmos where apparently all rules of physics and nature are completely void. Then there's the tourist stuff. In Bear Country, you get in your car and drive through this bear habitat. There's also a zoo to walk through. There's a huge petting zoo called Old MacDonald's Farm. There's a lot of Native American history to learn about, some good shopping and restaurants (even a couple of year-round Christmas stores) and if that weren't enough, it's beautiful! It was never too hot.

We had a lot of fun there and I'm thinking that at some point, a bunch of us should plan a vacation and meet out there--so now I'm going to use pictures to lure you...

Here's a few of Mount Rushmore. The first thing we had to do was visit the ice cream shop. Al had been raving about it ever since we decided to make the trip.

They were huge and good! Al got mint chocolate chip. I got caramel butter pecan.

We thought the Presidents might want some, too.

There is a stage underneath the memorial. They weren't doing anything with it when we were there, but I know they have a great sound system because I jumped pretty high when there was an announcement for someone to go meet up with their party.

I should probably mention the wildlife. This little guy showed up and ran around a bit picking up little pieces of food left behind. We ignored the presidents for a while and took a bunch of chipmunk pictures.

Back behind the stage area is a walkway where you can get fairly close to the monument.

There's a little cave-like area that you can go into and get a great shot of Washington!

The rocks below the presidents are what was blasted away from the mountain in order to create the sculpture.

We didn't do the whole Rushmore experience. There is a little museum where you can learn all about the history of it with artifacts and films, as well as tours. We just wandered around and took pictures. It was definitely a fun experience!

Crazy Horse has been in the making for 60 years. I wanted to see it and was amazed when it cost $20 to get in! They're refusing government funding, and I thought all they were doing was carving a mountain, but the overall project includes a medical university, museum, lodgings, and a bunch of other stuff.

We walked aroung the museum for a while--it is huge and very interesting. Then we stayed for the laser show (We figured we'd get our money's worth!) I didn't get great pictures because it was getting dark, but here's a couple of acceptable ones:

And if you think I'm kidding about all the stuff to do in Rapid City, check out their tourism website:

http://www.visitrapidcity.com/

It's almost 11:00pm and I'm avoiding packing. Al and I are going to spend the weekend at Bear Lake with his mom and stepdad. I should probably stop procrastinating.