In the second part of my mid west America trip, I was in South Dakota. This is a state that has never got onto my radar, and certainly not a state that I had ever planned to visit. It's not that I have anything against it, it's just that with America being so massive, there's so many places to visit.
Mount Rushmore at day
Snowpea, Mary and I started our day in South Dakota at Mount Rushmore. Normally I'm not a big fan of man made structures and wasn't too bothered about visiting here or not. The rest of my group had it on their list from the beginning of the trip. Oh well, I guess if it's one of America's most popular landmark I'd better tick the box as well.
I have to admit, as I entered the park, and walked towards the massive sculptures of the four previous US presidents, the view was pretty impressive. The 50 state flags, along with the flags of Washington DC, and other territories and commonwealth lined both sides of the Avenue of Flags. They were arranged in alphabetical order. I have no personal affiliation with any of the states so wasn't looking for any state in particular, but found it interesting to look for the sequence of each state's accession to the union.
There's a very good visitor centre at the site, and has a lot of information about how this project came about. I was particularly interested to read about how they carved the 60 feet tall sculptures of the four presidents and why they chose those four particular men.
Custer Park
Seriously, it was a crazy drive, but Snowpea and Mary were loving it and having the time of their life.
Once we were inside Custer Park, we did another scenic drive called Wildlife Loop Road. It really lived up to its name. We had to stop quite a few times to let the animals pass by. These photos were taken from inside our vehicle.
Anyway, the sight of so many bisons is a really impressive scene. They where just lazing around minding their own business, oblivious of us tourists driving around starring at them.
Badlands National Park
The highlight of my day, and one of my most favourite park of the whole trip is Badlands National Park. This is another case of where I had no expectation, and the outcome was more than everything I could have wished for.
After Custer Park, there wasn't much to do nearby and someone suggested Badlands. It was about an hour and half away. I thought this would be another park with mountain scenery. Boy, was I wrong! The photos I show you doesn't do the park justice at all.
Badlands is a 244 acres park with spectacular geological formation that dates back to 75 million years ago. Different layers of rocks deposited on top of one another from 75 million to 28 million years ago, creating a very unique structure like layers of cake. Then, about half a million years ago, the rivers started to make their way into the area, eroding the rocks. And what we have today is this incredible landscape. Actually, Badlands is so badass cool, that it deserves it's own post. That will follow soon. Here's some taster for you first.
Mount Rushmore at night
We started our day at Mount Rushmore and finished at the same location 12 hours later. The presidents' sculptures are lit up every night in the summer and we went back to see it after our day out. It was quite eerie as we were the only people there, plus it was freezing cold at night. And by freezing cold, I really mean it, it was actually zero degrees!! The four great men were starring straight at us, the flags flapping in the wind, like they were protecting the country. Quite a view to wrap up my day, and this post.
