Woof. Our van is a tired girl. We've been having quite some trouble getting up hills and over 60 but we're still truckin. Now we are staying at Kemp's Kamp, just about 3 miles from Mt. Rushmore. The landscape is beautiful, we are surrounded by mountains and trees. A creek and an old time railroad both run parallel to the camp site. Our neighbors are the troop 72 boy scouts, who begin and end the day with a nice rendition on the bugle, local campers, and bikers in town for Sturgis. We made the mistake of asking what Sturgis was inside the Harley Davidson shop.
So far we have been to Mt. Rushmore 3 times! We plan to go everyday of our stay, something that we feel may be a slightly uncommon due to the fact that the woman at the front gates made a point of noticing that we had been there the day before. But in order to get the full experience you need to see the massive monument at different times of day. At night the sky is the focus and the heads are in a silhouette until they are illuminated briefly. The afternoon light is clearer, but nothing like the morning experience. Since the heads are facing east, the morning sun is prime. There is also a lot of other things to see there, a movie about the history of america and the four presidents on the mountain. Recounting the moment when Americans informed the Lakota that this was now their land, Lewis and Clark traveling with their slave, York and Thomas Jefferson hoping that one day the white man and the red man could live in peace. Great stuff!
One of the best parts of the park other than the spectacle and the ice cream is the people watching. It is fantastic. I have been setting up in the park for numerous days in a row taking pictures with a telephoto lens of the Rushmore gawkers. I am waiting to unleash the collection.
Today is our last full day here and we'll be leaving tomorrow night for Denver. Wish our car luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment