Bear Country, Mounties R Us and one crazy horse.

Memorial marker to the creator of skyline drive in Rapid City.

Yesterday was a lazy day for us….well I guess sort of a lazy day. We got up intent on doing laundry YUCK! But it’s a necessary evil. So after keeping the dryer from eating my unmentionables ;) We headed off to the Dinosaur Park, which we’d seen the signs for as we had driven through Rapid City. As we were trying to find it we realized we didn’t remember what street we saw the sign on lol but we found it! It was up on Skyline drive, which in itself everyone should definitely drive if you’re ever in Rapid City. You can see the entire city from the road and it has a couple of viewpoints where you can park and enjoy the view. Dinosaur Park was a great park, it has 10 or so dinosaurs on display outside, but beware the steps up to them are many and steep.

Skyline drive view.

On our way to Mt. Rushmore we saw Bear Country U.S.A. which is a drive through Wildlife Park just right outside Rapid City. It takes about an hour to finish the park and was something we enjoyed especially with Beethoven growling like a maniac at everything! We saw elk, goats, wolves, donkeys, buffalos and lots of bears (hence the name Bear Country). At the end of the drive is a small walk through park where we saw tons of different animals which ranged anywhere between badgers to grizzly bears.

Hiya!

Today we got up to nice cool weather which was a change from the 100* + weather we’ve been having. So with that in mind we headed off to Mount Rushmore and The Crazy Horse Memorial. First we went to Mt. Rushmore and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Fighting Stallions

I couldn’t believe the combination of people there. I saw a license plate from Columbia, and I heard people speaking Chinese and Russian. It was a nice mix of people there and I was pleasantly surprised. I headed down the Avenue of Flags snapping tons of pictures and ended on the viewing veranda above the amphitheatre. I have to say I was expecting something great but instead I got something that was fantastic and I think everyone should see it at least once in their lifetimes. I went down to the museum to read about how Borglum created each and everyone one of the faces. It’s mind boggling how at that age and in that time he created such an enormous piece of art. I then headed to the sculptors studio to learn more about Borglum and see some of the tools he used. After hitting the gift shop we headed off to Crazy Horse.

Skyline drive view.

As we pulled up to Crazy Horse I was very excited. I still think and always will believe that the price to get into the exhibit is a little expensive. It was $10 a person or $25 a car load, which compared to $8 parking at Mt. Rushmore, is a little expensive but it is a privately owned and operated establishment. I hadn’t realized that the story behind the sculpture was so History Orientated. After watching the orientation video you get the idea of how important finishing the sculpture is too so many people around the world. There’s a lot of Lakota History behind Crazy Horse and I encourage anyone who goes there to listen to the stories and be drawn into the culture of the monument to such a great man. I really enjoyed going through the creator’s home that they’ve saved for everyone to see. There was a cat milling around and people were saying that it was the family’s cat. After finishing up with the fighting stallions and the nature gate we headed for the cabin. Although the weather was around 70* and overcast it was still a work out to walk around both of these and I suggest going when the weather is cool.

Ciao!