So today is the day. Today we visited Mount Rushmore.
Here is a little test.
Taking no more than one minute, what are your top 10 iconic locations in USA? (I will give mine at the end of this page).
We had been advised that the best way to approach Mt Rushmore is via Route 16A, from the South, called the Iron Mountain Road, which we did. This road is another iconic (that is the word for today) road, more than just a scenic byway. So we set out, managed to get a few miles up the sleepy, but beautiful, valley before the first coffeeshop loomed ahead. We stopped of course, only to find that it would not open until the next day. The owners were just off to Rapid City for supplies, but they made us a drink and left us to relax on the patio! Met a couple of nice young ladies who were here for the horse riding, they had brought their horses from Kansas for a week.
Now we started the climb up to Iron Mountain. Iron Mountain is the next mountain over from Mt Rushmore. The road winds and twists its way up to the top, be fore descending to Mt Rushmore. The guy who designed it had the monument in mind when he designed it. As the road twists there are three tunnels to pass through. Each of them is lined up so that its entrance/exit frames the four presidents of the monument, very impressive. There is also a wonderful viewing point at the highest point of the road. So twisty is the road that there are a couple of 'pigtails', where the road actually loops back over itself, via a bridge. We really enjoyed this road.
This brought us to Mt Rushmore, where we paid our fee and parked in the multistory car park. The sun was still shining, but there was a very cold wind, so instead of eating our picnic lunch we went into the restaurant and sat where Cary Grant sat in the film North by Northwest, no actually I lied, the restaurant in the film has now been knocked down to make way for this much bigger and more efficient restaurant, shame really, but there you are. However eating there meant that we could sit and look at/discuss the monument in relative comfort while we ate, as our table had a great view of it.
After we had eaten we continued walking up the central avenue that took us to the closest viewing point, past the avenue of state flags, where we interestingly noted that the Hawaii flag actually has a Union Jack as part of the design.
We went to the auditorium and watched the short video about the monument's history and then went back upstairs to the outdoor viewing area to take a good long look at the four presidents, memorizing each one. From our left they are President George Washington, President Thomas Jefferson, President Theodore Roosevelt and President Abraham Lincoln.
Having enjoyed a good long look we strolled back to the car and then drove home, stopping briefly at Bakers Bakery for a Goody.
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What was on your list?
Mine is (not in any order):
- Empire State Building, New York
- Twin Towers Site, New York
- Golden Gate Bridge, California
- Disneyland, California
- Niagara Falls, New York
- Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
- Las Vegas Strip, Nevada
- U.S.S. Arizona, Hawaii
- Grand Canyon, Arizona
- National Mall, Washington D.C.
are you going back for the evening show? Do they still do it?
ReplyDeleteDid you say evening 'snow' or evening 'show'. No, that would be an outing too far. We enjoyed what we saw very much.
DeleteAh I recognise this road, its the one where Roy knocked off our wing mirror!
ReplyDeleteToo late telling me that now - I can't get a piccy of the offending rock.
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