Mt. Rushmore - Finally!

This was quite the adventure. This is pretty much an all concrete park and X found out quickly that its not as forgiving as our normal hiking adventures. We viewed the monument which is so incredible to see. I still struggle to wrap my mind around how someone could carve this into a mountain. This is a bittersweet adventure for me. I know this will come off as unpatriotic, but it is hard to accept the alteration to land that was sacred to the Native tribes during the time it was constructed. As a Biologist, it is also hard to look at the changes that were made to the landscape, but that does not mean it wasn't incredible to see or that it should be closed. I think people should still be allowed to enjoy the monument. The boys had a little too much fun running around and X took a big spill, hitting his head and his knee on the stage while chasing bubbles from another family. He cried for the entire walk back up the stairs and out of the park and refused to accept a bandaid. By the end of it, we convinced him that the bandaid made his knee all better. We took our wagon, but once again ended up pushing it around empty because X needed to be carried after his big tumble. This is an inexpensive monument to view. It was only $10/car to park and the receipt lasts the year. This is handy because we will adventure back here when Gammie comes to town. The favorite parts for the boys were climbing the rocks at the entrance, riding the elevator, and likely getting ice cream in the restaurant on site. They also loved driving through Miner's Gateway Tunnel on the way home.