Great Faces. Great Places.

South Dakota welcome sign

There's that classic South Dakota welcome sign and wouldn't you know, it came out pretty good! Heather has exponentially improved her ability to take pictures of welcome signs as we zoom past them!

But before reaching the South Dakota border, we made a couple of stops.

The first stop was an immediate one outside of Yellowstone at the North Entrance. At the North Entrance is the Roosevelt Arch, an entrance way dedicated to President Roosevelt, our "conservationist President".

During the dedication of the arch in 1903 (which now bears his name) he said: "This Park was created, and is now administered for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." As you can see in the below picture, "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" is now what is carved at the top of the arch.

Roosevelt Arch - North Entrance, Yellowstone

Our second stop was a bit further away, a 7 hour drive via I-90, at America's first national monument Devil's Tower (guess who proclaimed it a national monument? President Roosevelt!).

Devil's Tower

Devil's Tower from the walking trail

Devil's Tower is exactly what it looks like: a humongous rock in the middle of nowhere. It reminded us of the famous Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia that we visited when I was studying abroad in 2003.

Uluru/Ayers Rock, Australia - 2003

Besides the fact Devil's Tower is an unbelievable rock formation, what's very interesting is that it also has a similar significance to the Native Americans as Uluru does to the Australian Aborigines. From what we read, every June, Devil's Tower is closed to climbers as a sign of respect to the Native Americans who wish to visit it in peace.

We thought about climbing Devil's Tower (sense the sarcasm?), but instead opted for the easy walk on the trail around it. We spent about an hour there and then headed 2 hours east to Mount Rushmore for the lighting ceremony that started at 9 PM. And it was well worth it!

The ceremony starts with a patriotic monologue by a park ranger, a short video on how and why Mount Rushmore was built and ends with all active and retired military personnel taking the stage for the audience to acknowledge their commitment to our freedom. Some might think of it as cliche or perhaps over the top, but we really enjoyed it.

Active and retired military personnel taking down the US flag

Lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore recognizing active and retired military personnel

But the arguable best part of the day was what we saw when grabbing dinner at the Mount Rushmore dining room: a tray that starts with "What does baseball have to do with Mount Rushmore?" How fitting! We got a good laugh at that.

On Sunday, we started our day touring the Black Hills of South Dakota. Our first stop was the Crazy Horse Memorial, a project that started in 1948 and is not close to being complete. Instead of paying the ludicrous $10 per person charge to see a work in progress (that many TripAdvisor reviewers said is a tourist trap), we just drove by it and took a picture.

Crazy Horse Memorial

We then made our way to the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway, regarded as one of the top scenic drives in the country. The first road, Needles Highway, is a mountainous, winding road that is named after the high granite "needles" around it. One of the features is a structure called the Cathedral Spires, a bunch of "needles" in a row.

Cathedral Spires on Needles Highway, Black Hills

Another feature of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway are the many tight, one way tunnels. Before entering the tunnel, you're asked to honk your horn so an oncoming car doesn't enter after you do.

Needles Highway, Black Hills

After Needles Highway we rode on the so-called Wildlife Loop because, well, we didn't quite see enough wildlife at Yellowstone. But at least this time we saw something other than bison and elk (although we did see them too). We saw burros! And got to feed them!

Feeding the burros

And of course we ran into a bison traffic jam.

Bison traffic jam on Wildlife Loop, Black Hills

Once the bison traffic jam finally cleared after about 30 minutes, we went back to Mount Rushmore to experience it during the daytime.

When you enter the memorial, you are greeted by a large stone entrance bearing the memorials name and in the not too far distance, you get a glimpse of the great faces along with the Avenue of the Flags, a walkway leading toward the mountain that is flanked on both sides by flags of the 56 states and territories.

Mount Rushmore entrance

Avenue of the Flags, Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore

For us, the first thing that popped into our heads was how in the world did they do this?

For those that are as unfamiliar with the Mount Rushmore story as we were, the effort was led and started in 1927 by a man named Gutzon Borglum, a Danish-American artist and sculptor and completed after his death in October 1941. Borglum created a miniature sculpture of Mount Rushmore (below), which served as the guide for the miners, sculptors and rock climbers. Each inch of the sculpture was to represent one foot on the mountain.

Miniature Mt. Rushmore sculpture created by Gutzon Borglum

As you can see in the sculpture, the memorial was supposed to include the depiction of each president from head to waist. We were told that the reason why the memorial stops with their faces is because of unanticipated changes in the rock formation, however some other stories say its because of a lack of funding. Regardless, it's still pretty spectacular!

Mount Rushmore from the Presidential walking Trail

Mount Rushmore

After getting our patriotic fix for the year, it was time to continue our journey 2 hours east on I-90 to Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park

I was told that the Badlands are like nothing I have ever seen, weird and something that you might find on the planet Mars. Boy was that accurate! It's a pretty spectacular place with some pretty spectacular rock formations and colors. Take a look.

A very interesting and spectacular place to say the least!

After 2 hours of driving through the Badlands along Badlands Loop Road, it was onto Minneapolis to visit Heather's brother Josh, his lovely wife Kim and most importantly........our baby niece!

It was a long day however, so driving 9 hours in the middle of the night to Minneapolis was not in the cards. Instead of falling asleep at the wheel, we drove 5 hours to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and massacred a ton of I-90 bugs along the way.

The I-90 bug massacre

But when we reached Minneapolis after a 4 hour drive on Monday morning, we got to meet our precious, beautiful niece Alexandra Rose for the first time!

Brian bouncing baby Alexandra

Heather holding baby Alexandra

As they say in South Dakota, Great Faces Great Places.   :)

The show must go on however, and tomorrow morning we depart for the last leg of our trip: Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland along with 4 baseball games at Miller Park, US Cellular Field, Comerica Park and Progressive Field.

Cheese heads..........here we come!