Wyoming was a wild wild west, big time. Green, boring hills where bisons used to live, now seem to be inhabited only by herds of angus cows. Looks pretty in the brochures and from afar but up close is boring and smelly. But there were two amazing places - Yellowstone and Devil's Tower - that made it difficult to say goodbye to this state.
Black Hills with their Mt. Rushmore are already in South Dakota. For some reason for a long time we didn't really believe in the existance of South Dakota. And North Dakota too. The latter one is now going through a boom thanks to oil exploration. We heard it's difficult to satisfy demands there. There are new Walmarts everywhere, contract workers buy rvs (we were advised to go there as it would be very easy to sell Eddie). Even sleepy South Dakota became neighbour's "back-state" and in Rapid City area there are a lot of small and big companies providing goods and services for oil industry.
Entering South Dakota we somehow ended up in ... Wyoming welcome center. It was probably the best Welcome Center on our route. Fast and strong WiFi, lots of maps and brochures, helpful staff, boat by painted wall (to take rafting picture), horse (for rodeo picture), dinosaurs, movies. We must say this wild wild west is quite civlized...
We spent there a few hours, catching up with the blog, facebook and emails, we found a place to stay that night at Cabela's parking lot and we headed to Mount Rushmore. Road from Rapid City is quite steep and winding, luckily for us, people behind us and other 3 milion visitors per year, it is two-lane. So we could slowely drive on right lane not risking hostile glances and being beeped at.
Mt. Rushmore is a national monument and the entrance is free but they charge for parking. It's only... 11 USD. As you can expect at this kind of place it's huge. There are few levels for cars and bus/rv parking along the road. We found a spot pretty far from the entrance but it seems we were lucky anyway. We didn't know that it get's more crowded later...
There is a wide alley with gift shop, restaurants and visitors center where Maciek got another Junior Ranger batch. There is a trail to the foothill, part of it is stroller accessible. It's worth to take a walk as you can see many more details up close. Another must-see is an exhibition about how the heads were carved and about a man behind it all - Gutzon Borglum.
Among the names of people who worked at Mt. Rushmore there is a Polish name - sculpturer Korczak Ziółkowski, who decided to overshadow his former employer and create even more monumental piece: Crazy Horse Monument - commemorating famous Lakota chief. Indians came to him with a proposition: We, chiefs, would like white man to know that red man have their heroes too.
Ziółkowski was creating his monument until his death in 1982. His work is carried on by his widowed wife and children. It's possible that it's their kids that will some day complete it, as the project is really monumental. Now the only part almost complete is head, and there is still hand, torso and horse to be done. Presidents' heads are a bit smaller, they could fit under chief's arm (if it's ever made) and they took 14 years to be made.
We tarried at presidents until late so we didn't get to visit Crazy Horse. Besides it's 10 USD per adult. Quite expensive as for unfinished head and a little bit of an armpit. Maybe in a few decades when Crazy Horse is already more visible from the rock.
Mt. Rushmore is a temple of American patriotism with it's evening ceremony. We stayed there by chance. We were tired but our place for a night was not far at all. So we decided it doesn't make sense to get there too early and it's better to see what happens in the evening shadow of presidents' heads. And there was a lot happening. We wrote an article about it "Why do Americans love their flag" for dziennik.pl. We will translate it in next post and we hope you enjoy it. We do.
We left Mt. Rushmore after 11 pm completely exhausted. We got to Cabela's parking after midnight. We parked among other rvs and we went to sleep. Cabela's, like some casinos is known for letting rvs use the electricity (there are plugs in the lamps). We haven't seen them but we didn't really look. After a really long day we fell asleep immediately and we slept like babies (thank God babies also slept like babies).
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