Here is one of many coal mines outside Gillette. This country is rich in coal, oil and cattle; and, wind!
When we returned from our trip to Devil's Tower, we grabbed dinner and headed back to the arena for Performance 5 of the First Round. I took a photo of this precious little baby girl for Alternate 2 of
Rinda's 2016 Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt since I am uncertain that I will ever find #17, twins, before the September 22 deadline.
 |
| I did post this on Instagram too. |
Plans had been formulated with our son and daughter-in-law and another Utah rodeo couple to leave early Wednesday morning for Mount Rushmore; since we were within 150 miles of this renowned monument, we figured that we'd take the opportunity to see it. Not far from Rushmore is the
Crazy Horse Memorial so we took in that too. We entered South Dakota and the Black Hills 10 miles out of Newcastle, Wyoming on Highway 16. This country is truly beautiful forest and it was a curvy but very pleasant drive to Custer and then on to the two monuments.
 |
| Crazy woman at Crazy Horse. |
 |
| The sculptor's, Korczak Ziolkowski, vision. More information can be found here. |
We watched the video presentation in the Visitor Center and came away from that quite impressed with the determined effort not only of the original visionaries of this memorial, but with the continued dream of the family and the organization they have built.
 |
| Ziolkowski's original generator used to power the drills he used to make the first holes. According to his narration in the video presentation, it was not terribly reliable and would "kaput" just as he had climbed the stairs to get to the top of his drilling site; hence, the sign out of the exhaust stack. |
It is difficult to describe the size of this monument although the crane boom seen at the top of the hand (which is currently being carved) looks very tiny and is, in comparison to the face.
We journeyed on through the Black Hills National Forest to Mount Rushmore - I spotted so many gorgeous wildflowers along the way but stopped myself from asking Clare to stop so I could photograph them . . . it would've held up the caravan behind us! There were White Yarrow, Purple Prairie Clover, Blanket Flower, Black-eyed Susan, Sunflower, Wild Meadow Rose, Lupine, Aster, and Green-headed Coneflower among many others. What a feast for the eyes!
Arrived at Mount Rushmore along with hundreds of other summer tourists and made our way to the viewing point:
 |
| The flags depict all 50 states of the United States of America and the dates each entered the Union are inscribed underneath. |
