Mt Rushmore South Dakota

Today we crossed into the lower western corner of South Dakota, the Black Hills National Park and home to the famous Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument.  The scenery along the way continued to be vast prairies with empty roads which of course are in very good condition thanks to the ample supply of rocks around this side of the country.  Long trains chugged beside us and the beautifully marked wild pronghorn deer grazed under the hot summer sun.  At the Crazy Horse Monument we enjoyed the Indian Museum of Nth America with its artwork, beading and weaving displays and saw spear tips created before the bow and arrow was invented.  Not far down the road we climbed up towards Mt Rushmore and rounded the corner to see the President’s faces on the rock…..it was a stunning sight!
From here we cruised on out through the Badlands National Forest seeing the busy little prairie dogs digging in the dirt, whitetail deer, wild horses AND 3 herds of wild Buffalo!  The park is home to around 1300 head of American Bison and they can wander freely anywhere, which is lucky because they eat around 4% of their body weight in forage and drink 20 gallons of water daily. 
At Custer the Trading Post had interesting items for sale including gold panning equipment, snow shoes, horns, skulls and furs.
So many special sights in one day and loads of memories to take home.