Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore

Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore are places you really have to be going to and not just driving in the area. They are out in the middle of nowhere. Although spearfish was close enough fo rus to stay. Crazy Horse Monument is so huge the face is bigger than Mt Rushmore. The crazy part Tom and I do not understand is that they turned down federal funding twice now. All of it is from private monies like park admittance 10 per adult or 27 per car. We watched a movie about it, then walked through the center and the cultural center. Joel picked a rock he liked from off the mountain, put in a donation and we took pictures and left. Chloe had lots of questions about Native Americans being displaced and Indian reservations. Another great learning opportunity.
we stopped at a resturant in a KOA called Ponderosa(not like the ones back home at all). We had some of the best home cooking. Then drove to Mt Rushmore.
The drive for all of this was in the Black hills, so we went past the Black Hills Goldmine and drove through Deadwood.
Seeing Mt Rushmore is amazing. I was so excited. Chloe said it was huge and began to tell us the presidents. She actually corrected Tom on one of them.
Chloe did the Jr Ranger program there as well. And we met one of the actually men that worked on Mt Rushmore and saw his tools. Chloe's only question was"Is that heavy" pointing to the piece of rock that was honeycombed to show what he carved off the mountain. You see to do details they did close shallow honeycomb jackhammering then came in with chisels to get the chunks of for better control on the details they wanted. A wealth of info and she wanted to know if the rock was heavy. I do see her logic though she thought it might be lighter because of all the holes in it.
Mt Rushmore was one of those places I never thought I would see in my lifetime. It was amazing to be there and see this magnificent piece of artwork that represents our country. I was proud and sad as I am sure our founding fathers never meant for our government and country to be in the state it is today. It made me hope for greater things for my daugther and son as they get older. It was inspiring.