Mt. Rushmore

Over memorial day weekend, Ben and I went to Mt. Rushmore.

I have never been there and it had been several years since Ben had gone. We drove the 12 hour drive there in the family motor home. It was nice to have a little room to stretch. I was worried how Logan was going to do on such a long car ride, but as always, he was a trooper. He just mostly slept. Ben and I had to feed him his solids in the motor home which I must say takes some talent. Logan's cousins did a great job of entertaining him when we stopped. As you can see from the picture, he just loved them. I think he enjoyed having some other kids around.

We camped in a cabin just a little ways away from Mt. Rushmore. It was really nice even though we were a little way from everyone else's sites.

The first day we went to Mt. Rushmore, obviously. It was fun to see it and learn more about how it was made. I didn't know that Jefferson was supposed to be to the left of Washington but the rock was too soft so they had to move him. I also didn't know that Mt. Rushmore isn't all the way complete. The main architect of the mountain passed away before it was fully finished. His son took over but because we had then entered war they cut funding and never finished it to its original model. The original model had the shoulders and chests of the presidents to be carved in to the mountain.

Next we went to see Wind Cave. This cave is different than many caves as it doesn't have the typical cave formations because it is really dry. It does have what they call boxwork formations which are unique to this cave. It was fun to go walk through this cave. I carried Logan most of the time and he was just looking around. At one point we all stopped to look up and Logan looked up with us. Here we are at the entrance to the cave.

We also took a drive on the Needles Scenic highway. There were several tunnels that were so small you could touch the rock when you went through it. It was a beautiful day and we got out at several different points to take pictures. Some of these are distant shots of Mt. Rushmore. If you focus really hard you can see the faces in the back.

We also went to see Mt. Rushmore cave. This is a publicly owned cave instead of government owned. It was interesting to see how law they were on conserving the inside of the cave. This cave had more traditional cave formations.

My favorite thing we did was go to a night program at Mt. Rushmore. They show a little video about why each of the presidents are carved on the mountain. Then they light up the faces while playing the national anthem. It was very patriotic and they showed all the places we had just been to in DC. Lastly, they had all those who have served our country come down to retire the flag. They invited people to come down and represent those who have passed on. I tried to go down to represent my grandma who served in the US Air Force in World War II, however, I didn't make it down in time. They had everyone introduce themselve and tell what area they served in. Although I didn't make it down I hope my grandpa knows my thoughts for his service were there. Because of the lighting I wasn't able to get a good picture of this so you will just have to take my word for how cool it is.