Yesterday was a great day in South Dakota! We left the park at about 8:30 am and headed north toward Mt. Rushmore. We crossed into Wind Cave National Park just north of Hot Springs and along the way, observed numerous buffalo, several antelope, and a host of small wildlife. At Custer City we left US385 to follow SD244 east to the park. It was a very secnic drive and we stopped several times for pictures. We paused at a small lake along the road to walk a bit and to let Muffie stretch and get some air.  As we came over a rise nearing Mt. Rushmore we were greeted by a view of George Washington, through the little window in the rock wall. It was breathtaking and caused us to pause for several minutes before continuing on to the monument. There is a parking area located just right to view this sight and it was quite busy with cars and two tour busses.

We soon arrived at the memorial and to our great pleasure, we found that the discount card given us by the SD Parks gained us free access into the park, where the Golden Age Pass for national parks does not.  The fee is only $11 per car so not expensive, but such things are really nice to receive for volunteer workers.

Once inside we found multilevel parking structures and even so early in June there werre many visitors there. We used the elevator to access the visitor level and were soon on the marble walkway to the base of the monument. The visitor center does a good job of telling the story of this wonderous work of art that so shows the American heiratige.

There is a walk of flags of the states and territories as you approach the base, a museum & theator, a gift shop, and a resteraunt. At the base of the sculptures there is a large ampitheator where evening programs are given as well as a lighting program done each evening at 9 pm. Having arrived in the morning, we chose to continue on to visit the town of Keystone and get lunch before continuing to Custer State Park in the afternoon. We will plan to return toward evening at a later time to stay for the lighting program, since we have all summer to explore.

After lunch we headed to Custer State Park, via US16a through some very scenic country. This road is a "don't miss" if you are traveling by car but not recommended if in a large RV. The road is very steep and extremely crooked with three corkscrew turns where you pass under a bridge and then loop around to cross over that same bridge and also three tunnels that are only 12' high and 10' wide,  being one lane with no traffic control but a loud horn honked before entering. What is particularly neat is that each of those tunnels is aligned perfectly to frame the busts of the four presidents as you look through them to the north! Speed linits on this road are never above 45 mph with most of it at 35 or less. We noticed that even the motorcycles take this one very slowly.

Once you cross the top of this pass you enter into Custer State Park by way of one of the roads that are called the Wildlife Loop. It doesn't take long before you begin to see the reason as there are many buffalo along this road and we also saw several antelope, deer and one elk. Part way along the route we came to a traffic jam, where the buffalo were licking minerals from the road banks and lazing about on and next to the road. At times they completely blocked the road.

After nearly half an hour we were able to work our way through the heard and continue on to the visitor center an from there back toward home at Angostura. We arrived in Hot Springs to a major thunderstorm with heavy rain and wind. By the time that we reached the park it was pretty well over but did make our gravel road into the park into a real mess for our car.  Even so, it was a wonderful day and we had a great time!

Today was spent by washing the care and helping with chores around the park. The intern and I were invited out to watch forest fire fighing training with water drops by hellicopter. I'll post some pictures from that tomorrow.