From Devils Tower to Mt Rushmore

More often than not, when you see a Class A motorhome like ours—the big “bus” type—they’ll be towing a car behind them. We’re no exception; we have our “toad” behind us so we can leave the motorhome at the RV park and do our sightseeing in the car. But what  we saw driving from Little Big Horn to Devils Tower was a first: a motorhome towing a trailer with a Bell helicopter on it. That set up definitely caught Russ’ eye.

 To be truthful, Devils Tower was kind of a checklist item for us. We didn’t expect much but it was one of those things on every attraction list so we planned it into our trip. And it turned out to be truly impressive. It’s a huge spire of rock that juts out of the middle of nowhere. We stayed at the KOA which was right at the base of the tower. 

You really have to see it to get the full impact of what an amazing formation it is. We could see prayer bundles and flags placed on the pines around the tower by members of the Sioux and Crow tribes, who still consider Devils Tower to be a sacred place.

Next up after Devils Tower was Rapid City, South Dakota. That was our hub while we visited Mt Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Monument, Sturgis, and the Badlands. One of the highlights of this leg of the trip was that our grandson, D’Angelo, flew in from Austin to spend the week with us. We had a great time with him but he probably saw enough rocks for a lifetime. He definitely got a taste of the Boomer/RV lifestyle.

The day D’Angelo flew in we thought we’d start off his visit with something that would appeal to a teenager. Since we saw motorcycles everywhere in the days before D’Angelo visited, we assumed  that the streets of Sturgis—the biker mecca—would be filled with motorcycles. What we didn’t think of is that we were going to Sturgis on a Monday when there was absolutely nothing going on. After really building up the excitement factor to D’Angelo we saw exactly three motorcycles and no merry bikers during our visit to Sturgis. 

Russ and D'Angelo at Mt Rushmore

Mt Rushmore, on the other hand, lived up to our expectations and more. The carving of the monument was more detailed than I expected, and all the more astounding when you considered the types of tools and equipment they used to finish the stonework in such a short time frame.  It’s hard to realize the scale of the Presidents’ faces from the rather far away viewing distance but to put it in perspective, each face is about 60’ tall. 

From Mt Rushmore we drove to the Crazy Horse Monument. We agreed with D’Angelo’s assessment when he said that the sculptors should spend more time on the monument and less time on the tourist attractions. It is impressive but it looks like it will never be completed.

On our way back from the monuments we stopped at the National Museum of Woodcarving. While I was envisioning smooth polished wood sculptures of interesting woodgrains and forms, Russ was imagining realistic, intricate carvings that emphasized the technical skill of the carver. Who knows what D’Angelo was picturing? Probably  by that time he’d given up on anything exciting. 

The museum turned out to be principally the work of one man who combined his caricature-like carvings with animation. Definitely not what any of us anticipated. As Russ said, it’s a must see if you only have three months to live and absolutely nothing else to do. So with that we ended a long, marathon day of sightseeing.