DAY 17: May 8, South Dakota, Part 1

Woke up at 5am. Over it, and cold. I’ve slept in my clothes so all I have to do is throw on my shoes and start up the car. (Yeah. road bum, I know, but I was COLD and there wasn’t a warm cozy bathroom--like Elk Butt 3, to change in.) Anyway, I’ve heard the best time to see Mt. Rushmore is at dawn, so the timing will work out. Stop at the nicest rest stop I’ve ever seen on the way (way to go, South Dakota--who would’ve thought? It even had a computer touch-screen with weather/road conditions.) Getting hungry going through small po-dunk towns but refuse to stop at McDonald’s, and that seems like their only food fare. Rapid City saves the day with a little indie bagel shop. Reach Mt. Rushmore right as it opens; I think I’m the 4th person there...the visitor’s center hadn’t even opened yet! My first impression of this Great American Landmark? Holy. Crap. It’s. Cold. Freezing, in fact. The wind chill was bitter. I only include the following picture to prove my point: don’t I look like a warm, happy camper?


When the visitor’s center finally opened, I went straight to the informational movie as much to learn as to unthaw. It’s actually a really interesting story, and one of the better interpretive museums/visitor’s centers I’ve been to. A few interesting facts for my readers who have not been to the Great Faces themselves: The eyes are 11 feet in diameter and 90% of the sculpting was done with dynamite. Boom.

A hike to the base of the monument gets the blood flow going, body temperature now back up almost to, say, 36 degrees. (My extreme sensitivity to the weather could point to my being cold-blooded.) Near-tragedy: another self-timed photo op went bad as my frozen fingers bumbled the camera off the 3 foot stone ledge onto stone below. Somehow survived, except now it time-stamps all my pictures 2003 and the volume is stuck on high.

Consider eating lunch at the tourist cafe (“Monumental Breakfast” including biscuits and gravy...yum?? no.), but as I am one of the world’s cheapest travelers, I instead go a cup of water (free) and pocket some of the jelly packets at the toast station (what, they don’t technically charge for them, and I have peanut butter and bread in the car. It’s genius actually. I’ve done this enough times to know that one packet is too little and three is too much. Try it sometime.)

Southward, with the heat in the car turned all the way up. It actually snows while I'm driving, though it melts as soon as it gets near the ground. Pull over near the Crazy Horse monument (in progress, I think the finish date is around 2050?), but the guidebook says you have just as good a view from the freeway as you do if you pay $10 to park in the visitor's center. So. I snap a a quick pic and move on.

Next stop: Wind Cave National Park. I had never heard of it before, but it's possibly the coolest cave I've ever been in. Pulled up just in time to join a tour going through, although I missed the intro speech, this is what I can tell you about the cave: The Native Americans were aware of it, and there are some buffalo legends associated with it. In the 1800's, the white settlers were confused by a whistling sound and traced it to the cave's only natural opening in the ground. A 16 year old did most of the spelunking and mapping with a candle and a piece of string to keep from getting lost. After 4 years, he gave up trying to find the end and declared it endless. Even to this day, when the modern cave mappers think they've found a new cavern, they'll find his initials somewhere on the wall. It's the 4th longest cave in the world and one of the oldest. (The ranger even pointed out fossilized coral!!) Think about that one for a sec. South Dakota.
Of course, as my camera is wont to do, it ran out of batteries and memory space within 5 minutes of being in the cave, with my reserves in the car. The tour lasted over an hour and we were 200 feet below ground.

I'll have to come back with the rest of my day in Part 2, TBC...