South Dakota Staples: Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park!
Upon waking up on Day 3 of my road trip there was a single theme that became evident for the day, fog. The fog was thicker than pea soup and made me so glad that I had pre made my coffee and put it in my thermos, for a first thing in the morning hot cuppa joe without having to mill about the damp and cold campgrounds. My first encounter right outside the campground, was with how Buffalo look in the fog. They are glorious to behold, annnnnnd this put me on high alert driving and keeping my eyes out for fog shrouded animals!
I took my time driving north from Wind Cave National Park into Custer State Park. Stopping to admirer the bison, pronghorn, and elusive white tailed dear before starting my drive up one of Custer State Parks iconic paths, Iron Mountain Road.
With the theme of the day being fog I was unable to get a first look at Mount Rushmore from the Doane Robinson Tunnel.
A short drive later I made it to the wall of fog that surrounded Mount Rushmore. After waiting an hour or so there was finally a break in the fog and I got my first viewing of the National Monument. Before it was Rushmore, the mountain was known to the Sioux as “The Six Grandfathers”, so named by the medicine man Nicolas Black Elk, who said that it represented the kindness, love, and wisdom of grandfathers. The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota Sioux. [ 0 ]
While spending the hour milling about the monument I got to learn about the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Yep ya'll Georgia natives unfortunately know this name. Gutzon Borglum previous major work was a tribute to the Confederacy at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Where Borglum worked with the Ku Klux Klan in designing Stone Mountain...
In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that $105 million in compensation should go to the Sioux since the federal government violated a treaty. The Sioux refused the money saying that the Black Hills were never for sale in the treaty and that they want their ancestral lands back. Many describe mount rushmore as vandalism to their holy mountain. So I walked on this land with trepidation knowing the history of the man who dreamed the carving and the abuses that lead to the taking of the indigenous peoples land.
After leaving the overcrowded, parking garage filled monument, I headed back south into Custer state park again, to Sylvan Lake. The lake was glorious, even with the crush of people visiting on the holiday weekend.
I continued my adventure along The Needles Highway. The names was very apt since it felt like driving my car through the one lane tunnels with very little room on either side was like threading a needle. I had wanted to hike in the area but the rain and general bad weather kept me to the car vistas. Safety first y'all! especially when hiking alone, don't go out on trails when the weather is bad!
The weather did nothing to take away from the amazing views. If anything it made them even more mysterious. WIth the weather on my tail I began the two hour drive from Custer State Park to the Badlands National Park!
[ 0 ] https://medium.com/politics-discourse/the-paradox-of-mount-rushmore-586243572bbc
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