Vacation Day 2 Part 1: Crazy Horse Monument and Mt. Rushmore

I wish I would have traded Aaron places for this picture so you could see Ruby better.

Mt. Rushmore wasn't too far away from our camp, only about a 20 minute drive, and the drive was really pretty.

We stayed nice and dry too. It was supposed to rain all day, but we didn't see so much as a drop. It was a little cold though.

We stopped to see Crazy Horse Monument on the way, but didn't pay to go in. Maybe when they get it all finished. I was really glad I'd had Lincoln do a bunch of reading before our trip, about the area and about Mt. Rushmore, because otherwise I might not have know about Crazy Horse. We studied Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in our Native American Culture studies this year, but I didn't realize until we started reading up about Rushmore that we were talking about the same lands. Now it all makes sense. :)

I did not take this picture, it's the one on all the brochures

 We got to Mt. Rushmore and parked in the "Lincoln" parking garage, which our Lincoln thought was pretty cool. Then we walked up through all the flags and out into the plaza. We met all kinds of people, and they were always super nice, offering to take our family's picture.

After we saw the view from the plaza we hiked up the "Lincoln Trail" (the Washington Trail was closed, but I have a feeling we would have hiked the Lincoln Trail anyway.) up the side of the mountain. It offered different views of Mt. Rushmore as you came along the switchbacks.

One of my favorite pictures of the day.

Ollie insisted on walking. There were 422 stairs. He did every one of them like this. 

Most of the trail was in the woods, and it was beautiful.

Here we are as close to Mt. Rushmore as we could get. 

This is right outside the Sculptor's Museum, I thought it was the best picture taking place of all. 

 On the way back down the trail, we stopped at the Sculptor's Museum. It honor's Gutzon Borglum, who was the main planner/artist/sculptor guy on the project. Interestingly enough, he also had a son named Lincoln. :) (Our Lincoln was in heaven at all the name references.) The museum was cool because it had pictures of all the different stages, and different interesting facts about the creating of Mt. Rushmore. We let the kids each pick a postcard and a little medallion as souvenirs.

Ivan on the observation deck. He only likes to have his picture taken when it's his idea.