20240929 Western National Parks Tour Day 18/20 - Crazy Horse Needles Rushmore Wall Drug Badlands

American West Bus Tour Day 18/20 - Monuments, Needles, and Drugs with a little Bad sprinkled in

Today was a long, but good day. Today's post will be another photo-heavy one and I think you'll understand why. I'll keep the narration short as it's late and I'm tired.

Our first stop this morning was the Crazy Horse Memorial. 

Started in 1948 and funded by donations and visitor fees, this project is nowhere near completion and based on current progress, will take another 75 years or more to complete. There was a charity walk going on today so close access was restricted. We were able to view the carving from the visitor's center.

Our first view

You can get a sense of the size - those are people on the top of the arm

A sculpture at the visitor's center

A 1/34th scale model of what the carving will eventually look like

They have started carving out the area under his extended arm

Arlona demonstrated the pose

The white outlines show how it will appear

Some facts and figures

We toured some of the displays and museum areas. There were many sculptures from the initial artist on display.

This is Cedric and Anita - they are members of the Lakota tribe and have relatives pictured in the displays here - Cedric took great pride in explaining his heritage and their connection to this place

Another sculpture

Our next adventure was to drive the Needles Highway. The Needles Highway is carved through a beautifully rocky area and runs up to the top of the rock features and then back down.

A one-lane tunnel through the rock

Exiting Needles Highway

Needles Highway was a look that went all around Crazy Horse so we caught another view after completing the loop

From the Needles Highway, we continued on to Mt. Rushmore. It is one of those quintessentially American places that everyone needs to see at some point.

Making our way to Mt. Rushmore

As we got closer, the landscape started changing

BOOM - George Washington's profile appeared

We continued on, eventually arriving at the memorial entrance and parking area - there is no fee to enter, just a parking fee and it is minimal

The sculptor

Reflection in the Visitor Center windows

That impressive pile of debris is what was carved away to create the portraits

Those lines are holes where blasts were inserted to blow the rock away

We enjoyed the visit and walked away feeling a little patriotic.

We left Mt. Rushmore and the Rapid City area behind and headed east to another quintessential tourist stop, Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. It was another hot day but we were finally traveling in air-conditioned comfort thanks to our vehicle swap yesterday.

Once on the highway, the Wall Drug billboards appeared every mile or less, it seemed.

That was just a small sample. We pulled in. Wall, the city, is dominated by Wall Drug. It is an entire city block long and is divided into sections, each selling something different. There is a restaurant, an actual drug store, western wear, jewelry, t-shirts, souvenirs of all kinds, and more.

As we left Wall, we saw what was billed as the world's largest jackalope sculpture - we can't argue with that

We departed Wall and headed east to Mitchell, our stop tonight. We pulled off when we saw a sign at the first stop for a Minuteman missile launch site. It was closed but we took a couple of photos of the structures.

As we were getting on the highway from Wall, I noticed a Badlands sign. We decided to head back and follow it. We were glad we did.

This was just a small taste of what was ahead

As we approached Wall from the east, we saw this 80-foot dinosaur

The sign directed us into Badlands National Park and a loop drive from one exit off I-90 to another 20 or 30 miles east. We purchased a lifetime National Parks pass for Arlona and headed in. This next part is a photo dump of the absolutely amazing landscape that is Badlands National Park. It is called Badlands because the land is...well...bad. You can't farm it, you can't let animals graze, you can't build homes, you can't put industry in. You simply can't do anything with the land, hence the Badlands name. But, you can't overstate the sheer beauty of it. Take a look.

Arlona out, adventuring

I think this is called the explorer pose

Photographing stuff

It is like an alien landscape

The colors in the rocks were amazing

Me, taking photos

Deer were starting to appear as sunset approached

We happened upon a prairie dog town

More deer

Starting to lose the sun

It is amazing how the color bands extend from rock to rock

Rugged is an understatement

A hawk circled

Sunset in the Badlands

We exited Badlands National Park as the sun was setting, leaving us with a 2:45 drive to Mitchell. We would arrive extra late as we passed into the central timezone midway through South Dakota so it became one hour later.

Traffic on I-90 was few and far between

We talked with our son, Alex, as is our habit on Sunday evenings. As we were talking, and in the middle of nowhere, this happened.

Yeah, we were almost out of gas. Arlona checked and saw there was a station two exits up, in about ten miles. I checked it the car reported 40 miles of range. We arrived and filled the tank, avoiding what certainly would have been a travel disaster. Running 80+ on the highway seems to impact mileage. Go figure.

We pulled into our crash pad, Thunderbird Lodge, at 10:00 central time. We settled into our extremely basic room and I worked on putting this together as Arlona read and tried her best to stay awake. (she didn't)

Tomorrow, we plan to visit the Corn Palace here in Mitchell and then migrate south to Omaha.