September 8, 2012 ~ Saturday

We drove up to Mount Rushmore today.  It was 10 per person (no charge for bears!) but that was for a season pass  so you only had to pay that once a year.  Probably a bargin for locals but no lesser charge for daily use of the park and they don't honor National passes so we paid to get in!

They put four states on each column and the date they were admitted to the union. 

Crazy Horse was next on the list.

On our way to Crazy Horse, we rounded a corner and saw this Mountain Goat beside the road, eating grass.  It is the ONLY one either of us has seen in the wild.  We were both just thrilled and it's another thing I can take off my bucket list. TOO CUTE!

 



There is an AMAZING museum there and we could have spent HOURS just looking at all the displays and reading about them.

I bought the book Bill Groethe just signed for me.  He has been photographing Mt. Rushmore since 1937.  He had some amazing photos of the last 6 war chiefs from the Little Big Horn and I would have loved to buy one but at 150.00 each, I resisted.  He told us he works every day.  He was very friendly and FULL of interesting information!

Before we left the area, we drove through the Custer State Park.  It was a beautiful drive, more trees and signs of Fall.  The air had that wonderful mildly sweet scent of pine trees.  We really enjoyed the drive.

 

There were several "single-lane" tunnels.

The HIGHLIGHT of the day was seeing "Uncle" Smokey.  Mac James  invited him to have dinner with us but Uncle Smokey said it's his busiest time of the year and he'd have to stay at work.

 

This is the extent of the wildlife we saw on our drive but isn't  it adorable!