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Today we threw away all pretense, and became tourists. Our first stop this morning was to visit Devil's Tower. It was spectacular, and I could easily have spent the entire day there. We walked the trail that circles the tower, and I watched with envy the climbers working their way up to the peak.
From there we moved southeast into tne Black Hills of South Dakota. Yet another distinctive type of terrain, different from anything we had yet seen on this trip. I honestly could see myself taking a week's vacation just to come back out and enjoy this corner of Wyoming and the Dakotas.
After a brief lunch in Custer we traveled on to the Crazy Horse monument, which was every bit as amazing as I had expected. Begun over fifty years ago, this sculpture will still take decades to complete. I hope to come back in ten years or so to see how the horse's head has progressed.
After Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore was not very impressive at all. The faces seemed small and indistinct, and markedly less visually stunning than the natural rock formations all around them. Still, I am glad we took the time to drive by. The countryside alone was worth the detour.
The latter half of the day was a monotonous drive across South Dakota. As soon as we left the Black Hills the scenery became much like that of Eastern Washington. It was only in the last twenty or thirty miles that we began to see trees and such. We have now crossed the great expanse of sparsely populated territory, and I expect that tomorrow we will begin to see larger towns and cities.
From there we moved southeast into tne Black Hills of South Dakota. Yet another distinctive type of terrain, different from anything we had yet seen on this trip. I honestly could see myself taking a week's vacation just to come back out and enjoy this corner of Wyoming and the Dakotas.
After a brief lunch in Custer we traveled on to the Crazy Horse monument, which was every bit as amazing as I had expected. Begun over fifty years ago, this sculpture will still take decades to complete. I hope to come back in ten years or so to see how the horse's head has progressed.
After Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore was not very impressive at all. The faces seemed small and indistinct, and markedly less visually stunning than the natural rock formations all around them. Still, I am glad we took the time to drive by. The countryside alone was worth the detour.
The latter half of the day was a monotonous drive across South Dakota. As soon as we left the Black Hills the scenery became much like that of Eastern Washington. It was only in the last twenty or thirty miles that we began to see trees and such. We have now crossed the great expanse of sparsely populated territory, and I expect that tomorrow we will begin to see larger towns and cities.