July 3, 2009 Day Four

We went to Mt. Rushmore today along with what seemed like a million other people. We got there about 9:30 a.m. and there was a mile long line up of cars waiting to get in.

We soon discovered that the parking lot was already full and people were already parking alongside the road. So, we parked the truck and hiked about a mile up the mountain road to the entrance.

As soon as we got in, it started to rain, so we busied ourselves with all the indoor stuff until the rain stopped, and then we walked around outside and took lots of pics. They had a lot of outdoor events going on due to the 4th of July holiday (which they celebrate on the 3rd; don't ask me why, but that's what they do every year, I'm told).

There is an airforce base nearby in Ellsworth, and they had a B-1 bomber flyover in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, about and hour before fireworks time, the fog rolled in and you couldn't even see the mountain. They went ahead with the fireworks anyway, but it was a major disappointment. The sky turned different hues of color, but, you couldn't actually see any firworks display. Why on earth they didn't just wait until the next day, I'll never understand. Seemed like a HUGE waste to me. :-(

After the fireworks were over, there was a mass of people walking down the mountain road to their cars in the dark, including us. We only had a mile walk to our truck, but, we soon discovered that there were cars parked as far away as 3 miles down the mountainside.

This is a picture of the light fixtures in the cafe at Mt. Rushmore. It depicts the drillers sitting on their bosum chairs while working on the mountain.