On Day 3 (August 23, 2013), we decided to park the trailer for the day and head to Mt. Rushmore. Neither of us really wanted to go as our Boulder sensibilities were a bit offended by anyone blowing apart the side of a perfectly, sculpted mountain for any reason. But many people told us it was an amazing site and one worth seeing, so we took a beautiful drive up HWY 16 (through one lane tunnels and pig tail roads) to get to Mt. Rushmore. We paid $11 to park and walked out of the parking structure to a sea of humanity. As Kim has to taken to saying, “Oh the Humanity.” The granite pillars and welcome promenade were very Disney-esk and kind of a turn off. Michael Manhalter said he liked it much better when it was a wooden area with a vintage kind of feel to it. I will say it was cool to look up and see the images in the stone.
We enjoyed the movie and museum that explained the intricacies of the how the monument was created. Truly amazing! I got a few pictures of Kim but had to beg her to at least pretend she was enjoying herself. I believe all the people, the sterile sort of environment and the tourist feel were a bit of turn off. Since we needed a bit of exercise, we decided to walk the President’s Trail which got you closer to the monument up 200 plus steps which mirrored the 700 plus taken by the monument workers every day just to get to work. And then, it happened. A bit of magic amongst the commercialism. Kim saw a mountain goat up ahead on the trail. I pish poshed it and told her it was a statue of a mountain goat for the tourists but I couldn’t have been more wrong! A mountain goat not 20 feet away with her baby!!! We got some pictures and tried to move on quietly. What a score! The highlight of the trip to Mt. Rushmore for us both. A good reminder to do things and go places you might not normally want to do/go. Hurray for the wildlife sighting!!