Reunion Tour - 19

After a motel breakfast, we left early to try to beat the crowds and the heat to Mt Rushmore. We watched the movie on how it was made and still can't quite conceive of how anyone could even envision it, let alone construct it. It was finished in 1941, a few months after the founder died and just as World War II started and dried up all funding. So it wasn't entirely finished. The mountain goats shown are part of a family that hung around all during the construction of the statues. Mt Rushmore must have inspired someone because about 20 miles away the Crazy Horse statue is being finished, and Crazy Horse's head is about as big as the four Presidents on Rushmore put together. Then drove on a few more miles to Custer State Park, which is about 71,000 acres of the Black Hills region. Drove by some "needle" rocks and a couple of tunnels that weren't much bigger than the car. Also saw a variety of wildlife that included bighorn sheep, burros, deer and a couple of buffalo herds numbering probably 500. One group seemed to like the campground. Decided to come back to Rapids City to develop plans for the last few days of the trip.