Today we woke up eager to go. Today was going to be a bit different as not only were we going to see amazing monuments but it was also eclipse day. While we were not in the area of 100% totality we were in an area that was going to be 96% covered so just about there. We ate breakfast and got Bubbles going. First up for the day was Mount Rushmore. I had been years prior on a trip with good buddy Matt Ray but Julie had never been and was very excited. It was a short drive from our campground at Hill City to Mount Rushmore. Its pretty interesting as driving to the monument you do not see it at all. The hill that Mount Rushmore is built into is tall and steep with other tall and steep hills surrounding it so the road going there twists and turns in such a way that you do not see it at all until your right on it. After curving through the mountains we were finally at the monument.
Mount Rushmore isn’t as big as you think it is from seeing it on TV and online but its still impressive nonetheless. After paying to get in (we found out that our national parks pass does not cover National Monuments – go figure) we walked in. In the park the parking garage section is built into the hill so that the top of the parking garage is just about level with the area where you walk in. After checking out the visitor center we walked toward the monument. You walk down a short promenade with every U.S. state & territory flag till you reach a seated viewing area. It is a really neat feeling seeing something in person that you’ve seen in history books and everywhere else. We sat down looking at it for a while before going down a set of stairs and into a history section and watched a short film on the history and construction of the monument. We learned that the monument took 14 years to build (1930’s – early 1940’s) for a cost of just shy of $1 million dollars). Once we emerged from the movie we looked at our watches; the eclipse had started. When we reached the promenade once again we had the strangest sight in front of us. Instead of looking and gawking at the 4 presidents, people had brought camping chairs and were instead looking the opposite direction up at the sky. There cant be more than a handful of times that people have ever gone to the monument to look at something else.
We had other plans though; we had a schedule to keep. We were not going to watch the eclipse at Mount Rushmore; rather we were going to watch it at the Crazy Horse Monument. It was a short 20-minute drive from monument to monument but the eclipse was already playing with the sun. As we drove the shadows increased. It was just passed 11am but it looked like it was 6 hours later in the afternoon. Julie and I had not thought much about the eclipse until now but we were starting to get excited. This was actually going to be pretty neat. We made it to Crazy Horse and paid to get in (Crazy Horse is not run by any federal or state agency). We parked and walked in. We watched a short video on the site. The idea for Crazy Horse (which is a huge monument honoring the Oglala Lakota Chief Crazy Horse) was brought forward by Indian Elders from the region around the same time that Mount Rushmore was being built. The only difference being that it was not government funded and they did not have any money. They did find a sculptor by the name of Korczak Ziolkowski who made it his life’s work. The sculpture that he thought up is massive. Still decades later the monument is only partially complete. To give you an idea of how big this is, the entire Mount Rushmore sculpture (all 4 presidents) could easily fit inside Crazy Horse’s head, just massive. As interesting as that was it was eclipse time. We had purchased eclipse glasses from the KOA in Cheyenne and we were ready. We went out on a patio and looked up with everyone else. It was really pretty neat. It got almost fully dark and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. All in all it was a really neat experience.
Next up for the day was a trip to the biggest town in the region, Rapid City. I had thought that it was my draft day for fantasy football and needed to be in a place with good cell/internet service, which our campground didn’t have. I later found out that I was a week off for the draft, nonetheless we were in Rapid City for the night. We arrived in the small downtown and started to walk around. It was actually a very nice downtown. One of the cool features was that they had life size statues of the presidents on many of the street corners. You could go up to them and see how big, or small these men really were. We walked around for a while trying to find as many of the presidents that we could. After that we stumbled upon a cigar bar (for me, not so much Julie) then out to a brewery/bbq restaurant before returning to Hill City for the night.
The next day we woke up and were once again excited. Today we were headed to the historic Black Hill’s town of Deadwood. Deadwood is historic in the fact that it was one of the biggest gold rush towns in the region and the downtown is made to look like it was back in the late 1800’s. It took about an hour of driving to get there through picturesque mountains and valleys but we finally arrived. We found parking and started to walk around. We stumbled upon the visitor’s center and walked in. We found out some pretty interesting things in the visitors center. While Deadwood was thriving in the late 1800’s through early 1900’s by the 1980’s the town was struggling to survive. The Black Hills region and the state of South Dakota needed to do something to bring this little town back. What they came up with was pretty neat. As the town of Deadwood was mainly known for the gold rush and gambling the state did something that at the time only 2 other cities in the country could do legally….they legalized gambling. The downtown area is only about 4 blocks long but there had to be at least 15 small casinos in that short distance. Not only was gambling legal but it seemed that getting a liquor license was no problem either. Not only did restaurants/bars/casinos have a bar but so too did a lot of the small retail shops. Yes you read that right. You walk into a little tourist t-shirt or cowboy shop and somewhere in the shop was a small bar. It was pretty nuts. After wandering in and out of small casinos and shops (and yes having a beer in a small clothing store) it was time to get out of Deadwood.
Next up for the day was a stop in the motorcycle-crazed town of Sturgis, not too far from Deadwood. With Sturgis being the reason we had to reroute our travel plan we really wanted to see the town. In 20 minutes or so we were there from Deadwood. Much like Mount Rushmore, Sturgis is not nearly as big as it’s made out to be. It really was a small town with a tiny downtown. About half the stores were still selling Sturgis Rally merchandise and the other half were either operational but closed or just empty storefronts that only look like they are filled when the rally is in town. We did see a few bikers on the streets but for the most part the town was pretty dead the day that we were there. We hopped back into Bubbles and made our way back to Hill City.
The next morning we woke up on our last day in the Black Hills. Today we didn’t have much driving to do as we were going to ride a tourist train, the 1880 train. The 1880 train is a vintage steam locomotive train that runs on rails that were originally laid down in the late 1880’s as a coal mining train between Hill City and Keystone. We drove the short distance to the Hill City depot, purchased tickets and boarded. The ride to Keystone took a little over an hour with a live narrator who told us things about the train, the cities and things that we passed. It was a pretty neat experience. The end of the line was Keystone, which was another old gold mining town. We had purchased a layover ticket so we had 3 hours to kill in Keystone before boarding our return trip to Hill City. Keystone was a very small town however it did have a few neat things in it. We had brought our lunch and ate it in a small park next to town. The park was next to a woodworking shop, which was pretty great. This guy took whole trees and carved them into mostly animal sculptures. He even had life size motorcycles and bison made of wood that you could climb onto. He was a master craftsman for sure. We then walked the towns little boardwalk grabbing a beer in a saloon and a coffee before it was time to board the train again. After another fun ride we were back in Hill City and made our way back to the campground.
We really had a great time in the Black Hills region. It’s a big mix of history, nature and towns with a good amount of touristy things to do if you ever get bored. Not a bad place to stay for a few days.
Next up we venture further west…..5 Days in Yellowstone National Park!
