Visiting Mt. Rushmore

I had long been to all fifty states before I made it to Mt. Rushmore. Despite having traveled all over the country, Mt. Rushmore was one of the few major sights I had yet to see in the United States. Its remoteness makes it a bit difficult to visit, especially when none of my friends had any particular interest in joining me. When I made it here myself I was quite happy though. Mount Rushmore is famous for its sculpture of four American presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. While you might think some extremely patriotic act led to this creation, the initial motivation was simply to attract more tourism to the Black Hills. They obviously succeeded when the sculptures were completed in 1941 after 14 years, but they had previously considered Wild West hero’s such as Native American Red Cloud or Buffalo Bill. The project was led by Gutzon Borglum who died in 1941, and led to its early completion. Originally the sculptures were supposed to be from the waist up.

While the sculptures at Mount Rushmore will never be completed, that doesn’t look to be the case for Crazy Horse. Within the Black Hills is a massive project to sculpt out the famous Native American Crazy Horse, but on a much more massive scale. The warrior will be sitting on his horse while pointing out in the distance. While the American presidents in Mount Rushmore are roughly 65 feet (20 meters) in height, the Crazy Horse Memorial will be a staggering 650 feet (200 meters)! I should have taken a photo of the entire mountain, but instead I took in a zoomed in shot at the only portion that is completed. To give some perspective, each eye is 17 feet (5 meters) wide.

The project will take decades more to finish, and while it will be one of the most impressive sculptures in the world, most of the Native Americans are against it. Crazy Horse had been asked to be buried in a remote location where his grave would never be found. Crazy Horses’s humbleness and respect for his lands is the opposite of the concept of carving himself out of a mountain.While current Lakota chief Standing Bear believes that the memorial has good intentions, he also believes it has been side tracked over the years.

While Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorials get all the attention, there is plenty of other things to do in the Black Hills. This is one of those trips where I should have taken more photos and spent more time exploring. I missed out on somethings like the Wind River Cave, some other hiking trails, and wildlife viewing. I did take this picture above of the morning fog. I didn’t camp on this trip, but for a unique experience which I’d be interested in next time, you can even stay in a Tipi.

Even though I hadn’t done any serious hiking in the area, I still was lucky and able to spot some wildlife. The photo above shows a turkey that was with a group of at least half a dozen. Something I didn’t expect to see was a mountain goat! Believe it or not, this guy appeared directly below Mount Rushmore while I waited for the sun to set.