Bear U.S.A and Mt. Rushmore

  We stayed another day in South Dakota. No way we were NOT going to make it to Mt. Rushmore as I have told everybody, if there was one can't miss stop on our tour x-country, Mt. Rushmore was it. The more I have read about it, the more I wanted to see the lighting ceremony that happens every night at 9pm this time of year. Obviously, we didn't think we could spend nine hours there, so we stopped at Bear Country, U.S.A. first.

Those of you who may not have been, it's a self guided tour by car to see many types of species of animals, most notably bears. We did see wolves, Mountain Lions, Elk, Buffalo among others but the bears stole the show, probably why they call it Bear Country, USA. The tour ends, in what they call the baby section where they have you guessed it, all sorts of babies. I was fortunate enough to catch these two cubs playing with each other.

  We finished up by going to the gift shop where we all found something to take home. Not hard to do.

  After some quality up close and personal time with the animals, we went onward to Mt. Rushmore. We did contemplate going to Crazy Horse first but the unanimous vote was to go to Mt. Rushmore to see the wonderful, historic carvings in daylight. We figured we would be able to go see Crazy Horse Memorial and then come back for the lighting ceremony at nine. Um, nope. When we got to Mt. Rushmore we were sucked in by all its glory. We took a Park Ranger Guided tour which was more informative then I could have ever asked for. I didn't know how they came to choose these four Presidents. (Should of spent more time paying attention in History class) Now I do. I also didn't know on the onset there was suppose to be carvings of Louis and Clark and how it became to be the Presidents. I also had no idea that there was a Hall built behind the Presidents that never got finished.
  Thinking that looking at this Historical monument would be enough, we got an even bigger treat. We met one of the actual Drillers of the monument, Nick Clifford, who worked on it from 1938-1940, a year before the project was finished and subsequently terminated due to the untimely death of the sculpture. He signed his book to us. I am looking very much to reading it. Can you imagine being part of something so historic?
   We stayed for the lighting, which was nice. However, the best part was when they had all military, past and present come up, fold up the flag and state what branch they were in. Truly a memorable day.