U.S. Roadtrip: SD is for South Dakota (warning - picture overload!)

After a long drive we arrived to South Dakota and Custer. We would have three days here, and 4 nights, so we were looking forward to a little break in the driving and to see the beautiful surroundings. And it was truly beautiful. We ended up realizing we had way too little time.

Stop for dinner when we had made it to South Dakota

This blog post will include the first day, a day where we would see a lot - Mount Rushmore, the Needle highway and Crazy Horse. First Mount Rushmore where we took a lot of pictures and I had a hard time picking out a few so just scroll past them if it gets too much :-) It was mighty to see those big face carvings!

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the U.S.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the U.S.

One of my favorite pictures!

We listened to a presentation about the history of the monument

The second stop of the day was the Needles Highway in Custer State Park. An amazing drive on winding roads and narrow passages and tunnels. On the picture below you can see a bus on the other side of the tunnel. It was too big to go through the tunnel and there is no where to turn around... The driver was not sure what he would do when we talked to him but to go in reverse all the way back on this tiny winding road would take a very long time. I felt so bad for the driver and all the passengers!

One of the fun stops we made with many rocks (and trees) to climb

Another view of the poor bus in front of the tunnel

Sweet boys!

Waiting to go through a very small tunnel

The small tunnel

Mountain goat on the side of the road :-)

We loved the Custer State Park and the only regret we have is that we did not have more time. I would have loved to hike and see more of the park.

Our third and last stop of the day was Crazy Horse. A monument made to the Native Americans/Indians in the area. Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota tribe. A Polish family started this carving in 1948 and it is the largest stone carving in the world (Crazy Horse's eyes are 17 feet 5 m wide). So far only the face is finished but the are several models showing what it eventually look like.

What the final carving will look like

To give you an idea of the coming work

There is a big area with museums, restaurants etc by the memorial and we watched Native American show. She told a story and then danced it with hula hoops.

Gabriel was very inspired by her dance and started practice as soon as we got back to the campground :-)

And that was all for Day 1 in South Dakota!