Side of The Mountain
Mount Rushmore
We started reading books and watching videos on the creation of Rushmore and the presidents week one of homeschooling.
Somewhere in all of our trip preparations, we were told Rushmore was anti-climatic and to not have high expectations of it, so I mentally prepared to be underwhelmed, but was still excited to go.
I’m not sure when the seed was planted, but I have always wanted to visit Mount Rushmore. Just seems like a place everyone would want to see.
I do not know what the experience was like for my friend who said it was anticlimactic, but I’m glad we had the opposite experience!
Justin may have been even a little more excited because with no park rangers on site. climbing was on the table!
I mean, who was going to stop him?
Before anyone gets all huffy…don’t worry. He wouldn’t do that…
The visitors’ center and museum were closed, but we had fun anyway and felt like we were well informed from all the reading we had done and videos we’d watched.
Plus, it gave us extra time for the gift shop!
Poor Edley learned the hard way about a budget and not having enough money in her bag. Fortunately for her, Avett bought her a stuffy later in the day.
We loved seeing it from afar and then underneath it looking up.
My favorite view? Washington’s profile as we left the park.
It’s just baffling to me how an artist’s mind works.
How an artist can envision the end product is one thing. Making it a reality, especially when you’re working with explosives and jackhammers as your tools and a mountain as your canvas, is a whole other thing.
Either way, it was a sight to see and we learned so much, not just about the artists and the four presidents, but that the mountain was originally called “Six Grandfathers” by local tribes and that Abraham Lincoln’s hat was made out of beaver fur.
Proof to my kids that it doesn’t matter how insignificant or significant the fact may be, there is always something you can learn or something that will stick with you from a place.
You just have to look.
Crazy Horse
This place was cool.
Like, legit cool.
We did not even know this place existed until we drove past.
It is an active construction site and when ever in our lifetime are we going to be able to watch a statue be carved into a mountain?
So we went and this was the most fascinating unplanned stop we’ve ever done.
So much to take in and appreciate about this place.
Truly fascinating.
We went back to Custer State Park to around Sylvan Lake again and it was just breathtaking.
Justin had the kids climbing over the boulders to reach a closed off trail, but I wasn’t watching, so I was totally cool with it.
No fears here…head in the sand…
But seriously, we enjoyed this stop possibly the best.
Custer State Park even had longhorn cattle and a stray cat that Edley tried to catch.
Fortunately, this cat wanted nothing to do with her and we did not have to try to keep up with a new cat while on the road!
Before we left for Custer for The Badlands, we met a homeschool family of 8 doing a similar trip to ours but in reverse.
I feel like that will be one of the coolest aspects of doing trips like these…meeting fellow homeschoolers out on the open road learning as they travel across the country. What a different way to learn and one we’re figuring out as we go.
Best wishes to them as they head west and we head east.
Badlands here we come!
