Crazy Horse Memorial

Today turned out to be one of our busier days. After returning to the campground for lunch and a nap, we headed over to the nearby Crazy Horse Memorial. Construction on the memorial began in 1941 and is still far from completion. When/if it is completed, it will be the largest sculpture in the world. Unlike Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse is privately funded and managed by the descendants of the sculptor (Korczak Ziolkowski). The mountain carving is the centerpiece of a complex that includes a visitor's center with an eclectic collection of exhibits focused on Native American culture and Korczak's lifework.

While Mr. Snootypurse took a bus ride to the base of the mountain, I entertained myself by wandering around the museum complex. There were unexpected surprises around every corner in the large collection of rooms and buildings. It seemed that the collection could have been better curated, but then the autographed Green Bay Packers football that I found might be removed!

This is a model at the visitor's center of what the sculpture will look like when complete. Following our time at Crazy Horse, we cruised up to Mount Rushmore again for a more relaxed look at the four faces. The motorhome-friendly road was surprisingly scenic and we were glad we made the second trip.

Custer State Park

For our stay in the Southern Black Hills, we camped at Big Pine Campground a few miles west of Custer City. We recommend this privately owned campground with all essential services, well-arranged sites, and friendly staff that even delivers firewood to your campsite. We got up early this morning to drive the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park. We ran into a small herd of bison early on, including babies, blocking the road. The babies are light brown. I was worried the bison might charge the motorhome but we managed to weave our way through. We saw a few prairie dog towns and also some beautiful pronghorn antelope but unfortunately none of those pictures came out. Many of the buildings in Custer State Park were built by the CCC out of stone and timber.

These are the begging burros in Custer State Park. The park neither encourages nor discourages their presence and they manage to make do with the ample grazing lands and handouts from visitors. The main visitor's center at this park was a worthwhile stop with an IMAX movie narrated by Kevin Costner that gives a good overview of the park including the annual buffalo round-up. This park isn't quite up to the standards of the national parks, but it is close, and worth getting up early for.

Mount Rushmore

We spent the night before our visit to Mount Rushmore at a motel in Rapid City. There are two roads near Mount Rushmore (Iron Mountain Road and the Needles Highway) that were architected to showcase the scenery. Their paths included turns and tunnels that were not compatible with our Forester motorhome, so we rented a car in Rapid City for the day. My prior visit to Mount Rushmore was about 30 years ago, but I still have fond memories of the pigtail bridges on the Iron Mountain Road, thus this is the road we selected for our approach to the monument. The road twists and turns as you get closer to the mountain and the presidents are framed by two of the tunnels.


Honestly, once we arrived at Mount Rushmore I found it to be hot and crowded. The National Park Service has been running an ad campaign the last few years telling Americans to "find your park". This is definitely not mine, but it is a landmark that all Americans should visit. The movie and the visitors center were informative and air-conditioned. There is a trail that leads closer to the mountain but it was partially closed and too hot for me this day. We concluded our visit with some of Thomas Jefferson's vanilla ice cream which was big enough to share (We didn't). I hope that we can return later in the trip, perhaps at a cooler and less busy time of day.


On the way back to Rapid City, we stopped at the Presidential Wax Museum in Keystone. It was a cheesy attraction (or perhaps cheesier than one would expect) and some of the statues were more realistic than others. Returning the rental car to the airport was more frustrating that we had hoped. The airport doesn't have regular ground transportation, like taxis, so we spent half an hour waiting for a shuttle to take us back to our parked RV. Also, the airport is almost 20 minutes out of town which is surprising given how much available space is closer to the city. When we later learned that the unfortunate radio call sign for the Rapid City airport is KRAP, we were somewhat mollified.

Spearfish and Lead

After our harrowing drive from Devil's Tower, we pulled into a site in Spearfish City Park which is at the northern terminus of Spearfish Canyon. As mentioned yesterday, Mr. Snootypurse is from the Midwest and has a fondness for frozen custard which I now share with him. This dessert is similar to soft serve ice cream, but richer because it contains egg yolks. We were delighted to find an outlet of Wisconsin-based Culver's in town and made that one of our first stops. Spearfish has a cute downtown and lots of biking trails but we spent most of our time in the campground, recovering from the excitement of the previous day. We did spend a couple of hours at the D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery and Archives, located close to the campground in Spearfish City Park. While the exhibits were interesting, we most enjoyed talking to the retirees volunteering at the site.

Following a two-night stay in Spearfish, we started our journey into the Black Hills of South Dakota driving south through Spearfish Canyon. There are three picturesque waterfalls along this drive but we only had time to stop at the closest one, Bridal Veil falls.

Upon exiting Spearfish Canyon we headed for Lead (pronounced leed) and stopped at Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center. This is the site of what at one point was the largest gold mine in the world. Within the last several years, the network of tunnels underneath the mine has been repurposed for sophisticated physics experiments. I'm not going to try to explain the parameters of their work but take a look at their website if you are interested in such matters.
Mr. Snootypurse took a short tour of the town of Lead including the hoist elevator associated with the mine. If you're ever in the area and interested in science and/or history, this site is worth a stop.