Entrance to the monument
From the top of the amphitheater
From right under our first president's nostrils
The amphitheater, lower (couldn't fit it in one picture!)
The black hills sure look nice from here!
One photogenic deer. She thinks her backside is her best side.
This morning I slept 'til about 9am. There was no particular activity scheduled for this morning, and it hit me yesterday that I'm really now beginning the totally unplanned, roving phase of the trip. There's no place I'm scheduled to be for over 2 weeks, which is a long time for me. So, I'm going to try to be more leisurely, and if I feel like doing absolutely nothing, well, then I'm going to do nothing!
Not that I wanted to do nothing. First, this morning, I got up and went into Keystone (just on the other side of Mt. Rushmore), where the Rushmore-Borglum Story Museum is. Gutzon Borglum is the artist/sculptor who designed and built Mt. Rushmore. The museum is dedicated to explaining his life and his motivations, why he designed things like he did, etc.
After that I tried to have an early lunch at one of the little touristy cafes in Keystone, but all of the ones that looked interesting were closed for the season. Oh well. But I knew from last night that the monument itself had a cafeteria, so I figured I'd just head there.
At the main gate, the same guy who was working last night when I drove in was there. He recognized me. They are supposed to put down the license plate number on your park pass, but last night he'd put me down as "BLU BMW" :-) Today he asked what L8 APEX meant, and I tried to explain it, but I find that without being able to draw it's very difficult. He didn't get it. Anyway, since my actual plate isn't on my pass, if anyone wants free entry through December 31st, all you need is a blue BMW.
First things first, I ate lunch! For cafeteria food it was delicious. I had pot roast, with potatoes and carrots, all for $6. Then I walked around the monument. There is a trail that lets you get right up to the base of the rubble pile (the artist had wanted to clear that and put a parking area there, but of course, it's unfinished) and the view from there is magnificent. Of course, the deep blue sky in the background didn't hurt any.
There is also the artist's studio, where a ranger talks about how the monument was built. It's pretty neat. I learned something else there: Borglum wanted the monument to include a "Hall of Records", which he actually started work on. It's a cavern that he blasted out back behind Lincoln's head, way up on the mountain. The idea was that it would contain a time capsule for future visitors to understand what the founding of the United States was all about. Last year, some things were actually put into the hall of records, but it's still inaccessible to the public.
Another piece of trivia: who the heck is Rushmore? Turns out that he was a lawyer in New York City, back in the late 1800s. He has nothing to do with the monument. The mountain on which the monument was built was named for him because he was instrumental in creating a bunch of gold and other mines in the Black Hills, which brought prosperity to the area. The particular site for the monument was chosen for the quality of the granite more than anything else. The fact that it was a named mountain, named after some NYC lawyer, is just a coincidence.
Speaking of the quality of the granite: it's erosion rate is such that they expect the faces to be recognizable for up to 1,000,000 years. Amazing. Borglum didn't want to create another Stonehenge or Easter Island (a couple thousand years from now, they'd be saying: "looks man-made ... but what the heck is it?")
Anyway, after my visit to Mt. Rushmore, I decided to head to Hill City, another local town. The campground says that there's a car wash there, and the BMW is in serious need (all of these dirt roads are doing wonders for reducing the brilliant blue to a dull brown). In town I noticed a brew pub! I made a mental note to head there for dinner (it's before dinner as I write this), did some grocery shopping, and then headed back to the campsite to drop off the refrigerables. As it was only about 2:15, I thought maybe I'd hit one of the *real* caves in the area, either Wind Cave National Park or Jewel Cave National Monument. I asked at the office, and they recommended Jewel Cave. So, off I went.
On the way, I spotted a deer on the road, who just obligingly posed with his rear end pointed straight at me. We'll see later how good the picture looks. As I neared the place, it smelled like a major forest fire, and it looked a little smoky. But there were signs that said "controlled burn, do not report" so I didn't panic. But at the parking area, the smoke was thick, and it was clear that the burn was headquartered right here. All of the walking trails in the National Monument were closed due to the fire. The cave tour was still open, but it was now 3:10 and the next tour wasn't until 4:00. With absolutely nothing to do, and the requirement to sit in thick smoke for 50 minutes, I decided that I'd get my cave jollies at Mammoth Caves in Kentucky at some point, and headed back to the campground to do a mountain bike ride.
At the recommendation of one of the campground people, I headed across the road to the trailhead for some nice singletrack. It had clearly been used by lots of horses, but there were no other visible tire tracks. It was a little moist in places, plenty of grip. The trail was narrow, and there were roots and rocks everywhere. It was pretty technical and hilly, but thankfully not all that steep. Still, I walked the bike in at least 10 spots. Rank it halfway inbetween Saratoga Gap (easy) and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (hard).
I really almost never ride totally unmarked trails, and I especially never ride them alone. I marked all of the intersections so that I'd know which way I came when I turned around. I looked at my watch and decided to turn around at 5:00, to make sure that I got back with plenty of light. I was thinking (at about 4:45) that it was a really great trail and I'd like to do it again sometime with a GPS and/or a trail map.
At one point the trail took me near a road. It then turned away from the road, went through a gate (with a sign that said simply, "Please Close Gate"), but then paralleled the road. I didn't know what road it was, but I knew I was headed roughly east because the sun was behind me, so I thought that maybe it was the main road between the campground and Mt. Rushmore. I also realized that although the ride started with a pretty long climb, I'd been going downhill for quite some time, and the ride back was going to take a while. But, it wasn't yet 5:00, so I continued downhill. At 5 minutes to 5:00, I saw a sign out on the road ... looked familiar ... oh! It's the campground! I'd made a loop right back to where I started. So much for turning around. Hell, I wasn't even pooped yet. So, I rode back into the campground and through it. It's enormous. Hundreds of sites. Up in the back reminds me of summer camp. It's all abandoned now but I'll bet they run a kid's summer camp back there.
I put the bike away, and then started to type this up. Also planned out some more of the trip. Took a shower, then headed out to dinner. My intention was to go to the brew pub in Hill City (called the Mt. Rushmore Brewing Company). But, they were closed. So, I went to a little place in Hill City called The Alpine Inn. It bears absolutely no resemblence to its namesake in Portola Valley, CA. This place is the restaurant attached to a cute little bed and breakfast. Their menu is real complicated: they serve only one thing. Tonight it was bacon-wrapped filet mignon, with lettuce heart/ranch dressing, a baked potato, and texas toast. Your only choice was what size filet (7 or 10 oz), what kind of steak sauce (A-1, Heinz 57, or Lea&Perrins Worcestershire), and what would you like to drink?
Waiting for my table I sat at the bar and had a Pete's Wicked Ale. A guy came up next to me, looked at my beer, asked if I liked it, then sat down and ordered one. We got to talking about beer, then about other things. His taste in beer is a little lacking (he *really* wanted St. Pauli Girl dark, but they didn't have it), and he assumed that Pete's was from Boston, just because of the word "Wicked", but he was a neat guy. He's lived all over the country, but for the last 20 years (I'm guessing he's about 50-something years old) he's lived in the Black Hills. Most recently he lived in Denver, in the late '70s, and disliked all of the growth and so moved to a little cabin up in the SD hills, with no running water. One day he sat there in his outhouse, freezing his ____ off (literally), realized that it was 30 below and asked himself, "What the hell am I doing?" So, he moved into a real house but hasn't left SD. But he's lived in Boston, San Francisco, and most points inbetween. Visited Europe several times ... it was interesting to find such a guy who is so happy living in such a remote area. I regret not asking him to join me for dinner, since it turned out he was also there dining alone.
Tomorrow morning I'm taking off. Heading further west to Devil's Tower, WY. From there, north to Montana, then once I reach I-94, it's east across North Dakota, back through MN, into WI. After that, I'm thinking of cutting through Michigan's northern peninsula, then down through the southern Peninsula. Then south/west towards St. Louis and Little Rock, then back northeast through Tennessee and Kentucky, to Ohio for the runoffs, then through Cleveland for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, then to Massachusetts, then to Philadelphia for Mark's wedding, then south to Florida and then head west back towards California.
My motivation for driving to Montana and North Dakota is really just to get Montana and North Dakota crossed off of my "never been to" list. By the time I get to Wisconsin, that list will still have 11 states on it. I'm orphaning Idaho though. I've never been there, and this trip is not going to take me there. I've also decided not to go as far west as Yellowstone. Yellowstone and Idaho will have to be another trip, some other time. If I continue with this plan, I'll also be able to cross off Tennessee and Arkansas before I get to the wedding, then then several southeast states after that. I figure that after this trip is done, I'll hopefully be just left with Idaho, Hawaii, and Alaska. We'll see.