July 19 – 23, 2020

We spent our last couple of days at Theodore Roosevelt National Park exploring the different areas of the park and enjoying the diversity of the area.

One item we were interested in was the Petrified Forest area. This area was supposed to contain the petrified remains of a forest from about 65 – 75 million years ago. I saw an example of a petrified tree in the main visitor center. It is obviously a rock that kind of looks like a tree. We hoped that if we did find some, we would be able to identify them.

We had to drive to the southern part of the park along some very dusty dirt roads and through many cow pastures. There are also a lot of oil wells with storage containers stating that they were storing hydrogen sulfide gas. There is nothing like a big ol’ sign saying don’t come near due to poisonous gases that will kill you, to get your attention.

Anyway, we drove to the parking site where the trail to the petrified forest begins. The trail is clearly marked at first, but then gets a bit confusing as the trail gets into some hills that have animal trails and water run offs that all look the same. Another issue is that we had some significant rain over the past few days that makes the trail pretty slippery. You’ll see an example of that in the following video.

We just could not make it down the steep hills into the valley where the petrified trees were supposed to be. Oh well, we got a nice hike out of it.

Our next hiking experience was in a site to the east of the park. We were trying to find the Custer Camp, for General George Custer of Little Bighorn fame, and wound up in Sully Creek State Park. We had driven on many unpaved roads in a lot more cow fields and just could not find the Custer Camp.

Custer had set up camp at this location 150 years ago as he made his way west. He was traveling with about 200 men with support personnel and wagons. It was quite an entourage. Two months later, he was killed, along with his men, at the Battle of Little Bighorn. This historical site was supposed to show where he had camped and still had the trail of his wagon ruts and camp remains to see. But, we couldn’t find it.

We came across the Sully Creek State Park (named after General Alfred Sully, Custer’s commanding officer) after driving down several mysterious roads. There we discovered the Haah Dey Hey trail. This is a 96 mile trail leading north that is marked by sign posts with the symbol of a turtle on them. It is supposed to be one of the premier hiking trails in the area for the serious hikers. They even camp overnight on this thing. So, we decided to hike on it for awhile and get some exercise.

You can see our adventure in this video. Thank goodness we weren’t with Lewis and Clark!

The next day after our 2 failed expeditions, we went to the northern part of Theodore Roosevelt NP. This was about a 75 mile drive to the northeastern portion of the park. It was a little different topography than the southern part with some interesting features like the cannon balls. These are geological formations that look like cannon balls that are caused by natural erosion of the rock over thousands of years.

We finished up our days at Theodore Roosevelt National Park and got ready to head west again to make it to Glacier National Park. Over all, it was a good stay in a truly beautiful park. I can see why Teddy liked it so much.

July 16 – 21, 2020

As mentioned in a previous post, Crawfordville NE – Fort Robinson State Park; we have been really excited about seeing the Comet Neowise as it takes it’s once every 7,000 year journey around Earth.

In Nebraska we got good looks at it for 2 days. We were able to see it visually as at that point it was very large, with binoculars, and with our 2 inch telescope. We had no luck taking pictures due to the limited ability of our little Nikon camera.

We then moved on to populated areas that did not work will with comet watching, until we got to Medora, ND. In the Theodore Roosevelt National Park there is a scenic viewing area that is absolutely perfect for comet watching and just seeing all the gorgeous stars and planets up there.

So, just before sunset on Monday, July 20th, we took Tin Tin (our RV) up to the viewing area and set up our telescope, camera on a tripod, our binoculars, chairs, and settled in for a good star gazing evening. We had done some research on the capabilities of our Nikon camera and thought we might have a chance at getting a decent picture. Unfortunately, even when Neowise came out in all of it’s glory, we couldn’t get an image in the camera. We saw it just fine in the binoculars and telescope, but the camera just would not cooperate.

Well, we were not the only folks up there that night watching the comet. Of course, we all got to talking a bit. The telescope is a great ice breaker as people really enjoy seeing the celestial stuff up close and personal in the telescope eye piece. We met Jon Knapp, his sister Ashley Ellison, their parents, and some other nice folks.

Jon is a bit of a techie. He had loaded a camera app on his and his sister’s cell phones that were able to control the ISO (how much light the phone camera will catch) and the shutter speed ( how long the camera lens will remain open) and get some really good shots of the comet. As it is so dark at night, the only way for a camera to capture images of starts, comets, and such is by gathering as much light through the lens as possible. Cell phones and cameras (like our Nikon) that use automatic settings just won’t let enough light in to get these images.

Here are some pictures that Jon and Ashley got on their cell phones.

Jon was gracious enough to show Andrea the Open Camera app and help her install it on our phones. Unfortunately there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to the manual settings, so this night we were not able to get any pictures.

However, we are pretty serious and dedicated Comet Neowise chasers, so on Tuesday, July 22nd we practiced a bit ( well, more than a bit, it took while to figure out the manual settings) but were able to go back up to the viewing area that night and get some good shots.

We set up our gear again, this time with my cell phone on the camera tripod. Andrea sacrificed a hair tie for me to secure the camera to the tripod head. Hey, we are pretty sophisticated out here on the road.

Comet Neowise made another great appearance. We proceeded to takes lots of pictures. Most of them were not very good, but we got a few keepers.

We also took some shots of the sky without Neowise just because it was so darn pretty.

This was also a great night to see the planets Jupiter and Saturn. In the picture below, Jupiter is the very bright object in the middle with Saturn a little down and to the left, a little smaller. It was fun seeing them through the telescope and letting the other folks up there with us take a look, some for the first time through a telescope.

We also had one mystery picture of the evening. Look at that streak on the top. We don’t know if this was a shooting star, a satellite, or a UFO. Anyway, it looks cool.

All in all, a very fun couple of days. Thanks again to Jon and Ashley for sharing their photos. We are going to try to keep seeing Neowise over the next few days. Oh yeah, there is a meteor shower coming up soon. Looking forward to that also.

July 19 – 23,2020

We continue heading straight west in North Dakota from Fargo to arrive in Medora, ND, which is at the southern entrance to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Teddy Roosevelt spent a lot of time in this area in his youth and really loved it. In 1947 President Harry Truman created the park in Teddy’s name. He did a great job.

On I-94 about halfway across the state, we ran into another fabulous opportunity to add to our World’s Largest list. We saw signs that claimed that Jamestown, ND, home of the National Bison Museum, has the World’s Largest bison. I believe they are correct!

Dakota Thunder was designed by Elmer Peterson, who oversaw the construction, in 1959. Dakota Thunder is 26 feet tall, 46 feet long, 14 feet wide, and weighs 54 tons. Mr. Thunder is constructed of steel beams with stucco and concrete overlay. He stands on top of a mountain near I-94. You can see him from miles away.

Also along the way on I-94 we saw this very unusual sculpture on the side of the road. We have absolutely no idea what it is or what it stands for, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.

We arrive at the Medora Campground, just on the outskirts of the town of Medora.

Medora is a nice little tourist town right at the Southern Entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It has some shops and restaurants, one church, a post office, and not much else.

We head into the park the next day. The first thing we see about a couple of miles in is wild horses.

We continue driving the 24 mile road into the interior of the southern end of the park. After 24 miles, we have to turn around and go back as the road is out of service past that point. It fell in due to erosion.

We pull off on various scenic spots and see some great landscapes.

Down the road a bit, we find a Prairie Dog village, complete with Albert, the lazy Bison.

The prairie dogs are very interesting to watch. They have a very evolved community made up of burrows and tunnels in the flat areas of pastures.

Off of the scenic areas there are a lot of trails you can hike. You can do a mile or so, or head out and camp under the stars for a few days. We opted for the shorter versions.

After doing some hiking, and seeing the great views, it was time to head back to town. However, we had a bit of an issue with the local traffic on the only road back to our camp.

So, tell me. Would you want to mess with this guy????

We made it by George and got back to camp. We are here for a few days, so more exploring tomorrow.

By the way, here is a picture of the current status of Tin Tin’s map. This has all been filled in within the last 2 years. Remember, the rule is we have to spend the night in a state, not just drive through it, to add it to Tin Tin’s map. Not my rule, by the way!

Map progress – Fargo, ND to Medora, ND via Tin Tin.

July 18, 2020

After Pipestone, MN we head west and then north to get to Fargo, ND. Most everyone knows this city from the movie of the same name. We headed here because of the movie and it was a close location inside North Dakota to pick up another state sticker on the map on the back of Tin Tin (our RV).

We had to go back west a bit to South Dakota first.

Then north to North Dakota.

We are staying in Lindeman State Park, just on the outskirts of Fargo. As it is a state park, it is limited in services, but in a great location. We are on the bank of a little river that runs through Fargo. Very nice indeed.

We have about a half a day to explore Fargo and made the most of it. It is surprisingly busy and quite modern for a town of only 128,000 people. It has several claims to fame to boast about.

First, it is the home town of Roger Maris. For you non baseball fans; Roger Maris beat Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs in a single baseball season in 1961 by hitting 61 home runs. His motto became 61 in ’61. He did this with the New York Yankees. Maris had an eleven year career in major league baseball. He was a member of 3 World Series winning teams, with the Yankees, 7 time All Star, 2 time American League MVP, and had his uniform number (9) retired by the New York Yankees.

There is a Roger Maris Museum in Fargo in the West Acres Mall. We went to the mall, to do some shopping, and accidentally found the museum and were able to see the outside. The inside is closed due to the Covid – 19 restrictions.

Next it was off to the Fargo – Moorehead Visitors Center to see the famous woodchipper from the movie “Fargo”. For the one or two of you that have not seen this classic movie, the woodchipper is used in a dramatic scene where one of the bad guys puts his murder victim in the chipper to destroy the evidence. The sight of all that blood and gore spewing out of the chipper is a movie classic.

Another exhibit at the Fargo – Moorehead Visitor’s Center is a Walk of Fame. It was started by local businessman Mike Stevens in front of his downtown store. After Fargo got famous from the movie, they moved it to the visitor’s center. The celebrities on it run the gamut from musicians to religious leaders to Bill Gates and Tiny Tim.

This part of the country has a lot of bison. You see them live and in statues in a lot of towns. I guess Fargo did not want to get left out.

So, as we have been driving around in Tin Tin to these various places, we noticed a very unusual restaurant.

We were in Roswell, NM in the beginning of the year, so the alien on the sign looked kind of familiar. Maybe we had met him, or a friend of his, while we were in Roswell.

The alien food was great. It was actually one of the best meals we have had on this trip in a restaurant.

Map progress – Pipestone, MN to Fargo, ND via Tin Tin.

July 17, 2020

In order to continue our quest to fill in the state sections of our map on the back of Tin Tin (our RV) we next headed to the great state of Minnesota. We decided on the town of Pipestone as it would accomplish two items we are pursuing. One is to fill in a state on our map. The second is to continue our quest to see some of the World’s Largest …. what evers. In this case it is the World’s Largest Peace Pipe.

This area of Minnesota was home to 23 Indian Tribes, including the Sioux. In the Pipestone National Monument there are quarries of red pipestone. Red pipestone is a very hard clay substance that Indians have quarrying in this area for thousands of years. They consider it a sacred material and make peace pipes, religious artifacts, and other items from it. In modern times local Americans use it for tourist items and such.

To get to Pipestone, MN from Nebraska, we had to pass through South Dakota and then into Minnesota.

Once in Pipestone we noticed a restaurant right next to us, Taco John’s. In Florida we are used to Taco Bell, which is a pretty good Mexican fast food chain. We have been seeing signs for this Taco John’s chain for weeks now, but have never been able to actually stop into one. We like Mexican food. We want to give it a try. Well, now is our chance.

So, what’s the first thing you notice about this sign? Look hard. How do you spell welcome? It has an “e” after the “w”, right? I guess not in this store. Let’s just say that we should have taken that as a sign of the quality of Taco John’s restaurants. They cook like they spell; very badly. We will not be back. Oh well, donde esta Taco Bell?

The next day it is off to the Pipestone National Monument. We, or should I say I, want to see the quarries and some of the Indian history. These quarries are very small. They are not like the big gravel pits and phosphate pits you see around the country. These quarries are all hand mined with chisels and hammers. The Indians can get all they want, others have to get permits.

After an interesting 20 minutes, or so, it was off to find the World’s Largest Peace Pipe. Which we did, right down the road.

This peace pipe is made of steel casings by some local artists. The concept came from the local Indian community. Next to the peace pipe is a nice gift shop that sells tourists items, some made from the red pipestone. It is the creation of the Pipestone Indian Shrine Association. They carry on the history and tradition of the red pipestone legacy of the area.

Map progress – Crawford, NE to Pipestone, MN in Tin Tin.

July 15 – 17, 2020

We left Cody, Wy and headed back east for a bit. While that may seem a little odd, as we have been west pretty much for the last month, there is a reason. A very simple reason.

We are traveling in Tin Tin (our RV). Last year we bought one of those maps of the US and Canada that you see on the back of RVs and trailers that indicate the states they have been in. It starts out as a blank map with the outlines of the states, or provinces, and you fill them in with the colored sticker for each state or province you get to. Now, in our family there is a bit of a dispute as to what qualifies Tin Tin to get a sticker put on the map. I am of the opinion that if Tin Tin crosses the state border, that qualifies. My redheaded navigator disagrees. She says we have to spend the night in the state to qualify. So, as I lost that battle, we have to go back and pick up some states that we did not spend the night in to qualify to put the sticker on the back of Tin Tin. Hey, we’re retired. We can do what ever seems important to us, even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of logistical sense.

So we headed to Nebraska. Their sign is just a tad shot up.

Our stop is in Crawford, NE the home of Ft. Robinson State Park. Ft. Robinson is an Old West fort that has been in use since the mid 1800s to WW II. It is the site of the last uprising of the Cheyenne Indian Tribe and where Chief Crazy Horse was killed. In a very sad bit of irony; Crazy Horse was not killed in battle here. After he surrendered to the US army he was imprisoned with his tribe at Ft. Robinson. He died while fighting with a soldier guarding him in the prison due to a dispute over a prison cell. Quite a shame to have such a glorious leader die in such a manner.

The buildings are still in use today. They house a museum and barracks for Boy Scouts, groups etc.

One very interesting thing that we were able to do in Ft. Robinson was see the Neowise Comet. This comet visits Earth once every 7,000 years, so this is a once in a lifetime experience. We managed to see it on two different nights while in Nebraska. We travel with a telescope and binoculars, so we got some pretty good looks. We tried to take a picture, but our camera was not able. The comet has a tremendously long tail and makes it visible with the naked eye and really outstanding with visual help.

This is a picture of the comet taken by someone out in Washington State. It is very close to what we saw.

Ft. Robinson also has it’s own herd of bison. We managed to see them on a scenic drive. Oh yeah, I had roast bison for dinner that night in the Ft. Robinson restaurant. It was really good. I can see why the Indians made it their primary food source.

One of the reasons we picked Ft. Robinson to visit was it’s proximity to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Back in the early 1900’s archaeologists found hundreds of complete dinosaur fossils in several areas of this park. The park website describes the finds and shows where the fossil beds are on the site map. So, one would think you could visit the park, hike a trail or two to the fossil beds and see some fossils, right? Wrong, there is nothing left. They show you some historical pictures of the fossil bed sites and some supposed fossils embedded in the walls, but us and others hiking the trails could not discern anything. It was a nice hike but very disappointing fossil results.

So, we still had a nice time in Nebraska with the Neowise comet being the highlight.

Map progress – Cody, WY to Crawford, NE via Tin Tin.

July 14,2020

We have been in Cody, WY for the past 3 days. We have gone to Yellowstone National Park, seen Old Faithful, seen a rodeo, and lost a day because of rain. So, it was time to explore the town of Cody a bit.

The town of Cody is the creation of Buffalo Bill Cody. He and a few founding members started the town back in 1896 and it was incorporated in 1901. It currently has about 6,000 residents and is full of history of the Old West and of course, Buffalo Bill.

It is a very clean, quiet, well maintained little town. Everyone is friendly and seem to be very well off. The average price for a house in town is about $350,000. We thought this was kind of pricey for homes that although nice, are pretty average in size and acreage. We saw no low income housing, or even apartments, for that matter in town. They claim to have 500,000 tourists come through every year, so between tourism and ranching, the town seems to be doing very well.

We started off by visiting the Old Trail Town on the western side of town. By we, I mean me, Andrea had had enough cowboy stuff and begged off.

Next it was off to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. I expected some historical stuff about Buffalo Bill and maybe a 20 minute visit. Boy, was I wrong (note it is still I, not we). This Center of the West actually consists of 5 museums and a research library. It is all first class and amazing in its’ diversity and quality of presentations.

The 5 museums consist of the Buffalo Bill museum, the Plains Indian Museum, the Whitney Western Art Museum, the Draper Natural History Museum, and the New Cody Firearms Museum. They are extremely detailed and fascinating in the chronological and personal detail shown in each exhibit. In addition there are numerous bronze statues outside the Center that depict Indians, animals, and of course, Buffalo Bill himself.

We finished off the day with a neat trolley ride around town that featured a lot of interesting historical data and a good overview of this fine little cow town.

So ended a very pleasant day in the town of Cody, WY.

July 12 – 15, 2020

We are still heading west in Tin Tin (our 24 foot Coachman RV) further into Wyoming. We have set our sights on visiting Yellowstone National Park and all the wonders that it contains (or at least as many as we can get to).

The summertime is peak tourist season for all the US national parks, even with the Covid-19 pandemic in full force. Because of this, we could only find a RV spot available in the town of Cody, WY, about an hour east of the eastern entrance to Yellowstone.

If the name Cody sounds a bit familiar, it is. This town was founded by Buffalo Bill Cody back in 1901. It is full of old west cow town items, as well as current day cowboys and cowgirls, and has numerous historical spots to learn about Buffalo Bill. Bill started the Irma Hotel, still in operation, a cattle ranch and dude ranch with hunting expeditions. The ranch is still in existence today, with different ownership other than the Cody family.

What is more western than a rodeo? Nothing of course. Just so happens that Cody, WY declares itself the rodeo capitol of the world. I’m sure not that Texas agrees with that statement, but there is a nice rodeo every day of the week during the summer in Cody. We had to go see for ourselves.

We saw a traditional western rodeo, complete with all kinds of bucking beasts and rope throwing.

The next day is time for the main event, Yellowstone National Park. This is another item on my list to see since I was a kid, especially the Old Faithful geyser.

As mentioned above, we are about 50 miles east of the eastern entrance to the park. On top of that, the eastern entrance to the park is about 85 miles away from the main visitor center and Old Faithful. Bottom line is, it takes us about 2 1/2 hours to get there in the morning. It is a narrow twisting, windy, up and down route the whole way. However, it was a absolutely gorgeous drive through the Absaroka Range of the Rocky Mountains.

About half way over the mountains, we found the Continental Divide. We have seen this a couple of times in other states, but it always fascinates me when we see a marker.

We made it to the visitor center area, which was closed by the way, a short distance from Old Faithful. We ate a quick lunch and wandered down by the hotels trying to locate exactly where Old Faithful was. Brilliant travelers that we are, we followed the stream of people heading a short distance down the path. Turns out Old Faithful was scheduled to erupt in just a few minutes. Man, we could not have timed it any better.

After the great show, we found out that there are many geysers in the park. In fact, there was a whole basin full of them a short walk away.

The underground cracks and fissures combined with super heated water from far down in the earth’s crust are found in many areas surrounding Old Faithful. The park has erected wooden pathways so that people can walk around the hot springs and geysers without harming them. We explored the Upper Geyser Basin for awhile.

After seeing the other impressive geysers and hot springs, we headed back down towards the visitor center and gift shops. Someone in the Goodell household wanted to go shopping (not me). Along the way we found a new friend, Herman the bison.

After our brush with death, we continued on to the shopping and then back in Tin Tin to start home.

As it was still fairly early, we had a chance to visit another spot on the way out of Yellowstone. It is called the Western Thumb and refers to a section of Yellowstone Lake. The lake is the big one you have seen in the previous pictures. The scientists believe that this crater shaped section of the lake was caused by a volcanic explosion about 125,000 years ago. So, it too has hot subterranean areas that produce hot springs, but no geysers. They are still very pretty though.

So, it was off through Yellowstone National Park, through Shoshone National Forest, to get back to good ol’ Cody to rest.

Map progress – Devil’s Tower, WY to Cody, WY via Tin Tin.

July 8 – 11, 2020

So, what the heck is Devil’s Tower you may ask. Well, remember the movie by Steven Speilberg “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”? Remember Richard Dreyfuss sculpting the mountain out of mashed potatoes at the family dinner table? Well, that was Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.

As Andrea and I were planning our trip, about a week out from any location, we saw that Devil’s Tower was relatively close to Mount Rushmore. Good enough for us. Off we go in Tin Tin (our 24 foot Coachman RV).

We made reservations at the Devil’s Tower KOA RV park for 3 days.

This was a very nice park with an amazing view. They show “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” every night at 8PM on an outdoor theater underneath the Devil’s Tower. Very cool.

We quickly figured out that it was not going to take us 3 days to explore Devil’s Tower National Monument. So, we decided to explore the area a bit. Nearby is Sturgis, SD. For anyone connected to the motorcycle world, they will recognize this town as one of the premier motorcycle event towns in the world. It rivals Daytona Beach’s Bike Week as the largest and most popular gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts and wanna be’s in the world. So, of course, we had to visit for a bit.

Sturgis is only a town of about 6,000 people, so not much to do there when they are not full of crazy bikers. Nearby is the town of Deadwood, SD. This is the old cow town of the wild west where Wild Bill Hickok got shot in the Saloon #10. Much more stuff to see there.

We also saw a very interesting old house that has become a historical museum. The house was built in the late 1800’s and is full of great historical furniture.

The next day is dedicated to the Devil’s Tower National Monument. This is a fascinating place with hiking trails around the tower and rock climbers going up and down the face of it.

Devil’s Tower was the first National Monument created in the United States by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906. It is a truly remarkable landmark and amazing place to visit.

Map progress – Badlands, SD to Devil’s Tower, WY via Tin Tin.

July 8, 2020

After our great day in the Badlands National Park, it is time to keep heading west off I-90 in South Dakota. Our ultimate goal for the day is to reach the Devil’s Tower National Monument in Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. However, along the way are two major sights to see; Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial.

We woke up bright and early (for us anyway) and started to get ready to break down Tin Tin (our 24 foot Coachman RV) for the trip ahead. All of a sudden we hear tremendous claps of lightning and pounding on top of Tin Tin. Yep, we are in a hail storm.

Tin Tin weathers the storm like the Mighty RV he is and we soon head west again on I-90. We are on the way to Mount Rushmore. We have tried to get there before on a previous trip, but it was too cold for Tin Tin to go to South Dakota in February from Kansas, so we didn’t go. Now, in July, it is hot and humid and we are on the way.

Mount Rushmore was designed and built by Gutzon Borglum, an American sculptor and painter. Construction started in 1927 and was declared finished in 1941. Originally the presidents were supposed to be done from head to torso, but lack of funding made this impossible. If you look closely at the figures, you can see that Washington has had his torso started. He was the first one constructed. Lincoln was the last one done. Look at the right side of Lincoln’s head (his left side) and you can see how the side of the mountain was being prepared for more work by the terraces sculpted out of the mountain by the side of his beard. They ran out of money and just stopped. The entire cost of the project was $1,000,000.

There really is not much to do at Mount Rushmore other than a short hike and gaze up at the figures. So, after we had our fill, we headed out to see the Crazy Horse Memorial, a few miles away.

On the road on the backside of Mount Rushmore we saw a great profile of Washington. I didn’t even know that this vantage point existed.

We drove about 15 minutes to the Crazy Horse Memorial. This is the creation of Korczak Ziolkowski. Construction started in 1948 and continues to this day. Korczak briefly worked with Gutzon Borglum on Mount Rushmore. Korczak left, after working on Mount Rushmore for about a year, due to frustrations with Borglum, and more importantly, frustrations with the US Government and their funding processes.

After he left Borglum, Korczak entered into a relationship with Henry Standing Bear, an Elder of the Lakota tribe, part of the Sioux nation. They wanted to memorialize Crazy Horse for the great warrior and chief that he had been to the Sioux people.

Henry Standing Bear traded his own personal land of 800 acres to the federal government in exchange for the current mountain site of the memorial. The memorial itself is owned and operated by the non profit Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. The foundation is currently managed by Korczaks’ granddaughter.

The Ziolkowski family has continued the work of Korczak, even after his death in 1982 at age 74. The foundation refuses to accept any government funding and relies solely on private donations and profits from the tourist businesses run on the mountain site to continue his work.

The memorial has been under construction for 70 years. To date only Crazy Horse’s face and outline of out stretched arm is complete. By comparison, Mount Rushmore was completed in 14 years.

The Crazy Horse Memorial, when complete, will be the tallest and largest mountain memorial in the world. Let’s hope that the Ziolkowski family can pull it off.

The Crazy Horse site has more things to do then the Mount Rushmore site. As Crazy Horse is a private enterprise, they have developed programs such as historical lectures and perspective talks, extensive gift shop and restaurants, and bus tours that get you very close to the mountain itself. In previous years, it seems that the public could actually walk on top of Crazy Horses’ arm at the top of the mountain.

In the visitor center they have a very interesting poster of pictures of the mountain at various time periods. It gives a great timeline view of the progress to date.

All in all, it was a great day for visiting mountain monuments. I have wanted to see Mount Rushmore since I was a kid. I learned of the Crazy Horse Memorial about 10 years ago. It was really nice to see them in person and cross them off my list of things to do.

Map progress – Badlands, SD to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial via Tin Tin.