Four States in Three Days

Phil and I decided we should do another weekend away.  There is still so much that we would love to see, so decided to take a long weekend and head up to Mount Rushmore, with some scenic stop offs along the way!  We left on Thursday night, and it was about a four hour drive to Gering, in Nebraska, where we stayed the night. 

The next morning we got up, and visited Scotts Bluff, National Monument.  This was an important landmark, along the Oregon Trail, and Mormon Trail, which indicated the end of the Plains, and the beginning of the Rocky Mountains, as they travelled from the East to the West.  It is made up of a number of peaks, and is a pretty amazing piece of the landscape.

 

The Bluff they had to pass through

Covered wagon on the Oregon trail at Scott's Bluff

 

Scott's Bluff from the 'other' side

 We were up and out pretty early, so after a bit of a run around at the Bluff, we were back in the car for the 20 miles to Chimney Rock.  Along the way, you are well aware that you are in farming country.  It is very pretty, but flat and vast - apparently Nebraska is the most unpopulated state!  Took these photos of big tractors and irrigators for Rod and Craig, my brother and brother-in-law - thought you might appreciate these!

 

 



 Chimney Rock was another landmark that was used to navigate the way along the Oregon Trail.  It is over 90 metres above the surrounding valley, and has apparently shrunk over the years due to erosion, and lightening strikes.  There is a little museum which we went and had a look at, though we thought we were lucky visiting when it was cooler, as the rattlesnakes should not be a problem! (See the photo below).  There was a short film, and we learnt about the rock, and the early explorers who navigated their way across the country.  There was also a wagon that the boys (and Phil) could load up, and it was weighed, so they had to work out what was most important to carry for the journey.  It was fun, and educational too.

A little further along the road was a fun stop, which some friends had told us about, Carhenge (like Stonehenge - a little).   It was kind of like a graveyard for cars and trucks - a piece of art! It was really cold, but we got out and took photos, and had a run around.

Next we were heading to South Dakota, and Mount Rushmore.  It was a big day of driving, and being in the car, but we made it! 

Don't know if the bullet holes are a protest at the 'Great faces, Great Places' slogan?

We got to the monument in the afternoon, but driving through Keystone, which is the closest town to Mount Rushmore, it was like a ghost town!  You could see how busy it would be in the summer time, and there were lots of restaurants, souvenir shops and things to do, but most were closed down the weekend in November that we visited.  We were told at the height of summer, they could have over 15,000 visitors a day, so we weren't sorry to have missed that.



Mount Rushmore lit up at night

My Aussie four, in front of the American four

Another very important face!

The walkway to Mt Rushmore, with all the State flags

 

A resident at Mt Rushmore - a mountain goat

It was pretty amazing to see Mount Rushmore in person, after seeing it on TV and in books for years.  However, I did expect it to be bigger - and I heard a few other people make the same comment.  It was really interesting to go to the information centre though, and learn about how it was built!  It took 14 years to complete, but only 6 years were spent on actual carving (or blasting!) We saw a movie, and there were exhibits showing the sketches, the portraits in plaster, the tools they used, and information about the presidents.  The boys completed a Junior Ranger booklet, and got another badge for their collection.  We were almost back to the car when we realised Ryan had left his beanie in the gift shop, so we went back to collect that.  By the time we were all organised, the sun was going down, so decided to stay and get some night time shots.

We stayed the night in Keystone, and the next morning, we decided to visit Bear Country.

 

It is a wildlife park, which you drive through and see the animals, which are roaming free in their own habitat, over 200 acres.  There are fences, and animals are separated by cattle grids (except for the mountain lions, which are kept in a large enclosure.  Signs everywhere warn you not to get out of your car, open windows, doors or sunroofs, and to definitely not feed the animals.  We have not seen a lot of wildlife, apart from Bison, so decided this would be as good as it gets! And we were really pleased we did it.  As we drove through, we saw Dall Sheep, Reindeer, Arctic Wolves, Big Horn Sheep., Mountain Lion, Black Bears and Bison.  We also saw Elk, but couldn't find that picture! 

 

  Next we headed to Custer State Park.  We had heard it was very pretty, and had a Wildlife Loop Road, which we decided to do.  We saw lots of Bison,

 

and stopped at this lodge for some lunch, and a quick game of soccer.

 

On the way out of the park, we saw this great lake, and a little deer in the wild.

We drove, and spent the night in Cheyenne, Wyoming, so that we could wake up in the morning, and do some sightseeing.

This would have been a good idea, if it had of been any day other than Sunday.  The tourist attractions that did open, didn't open til 11am, and not even a lot of the shops were open for Sunday trade.  We still had a nice walk around the town, we went up to the Capitol Building, and checked out all the arty 'boots' which are displayed throughout the town.  We had a look through the biggest Wrangler store I have ever seen (the only Wrangler store I have ever seen, but it was big!)  which had absolutely everything that a cowgirl or cowboy could need.

 

 

and drove back to Denver.