Crossed another state line today! Although today was hyped up to be one of the hardest rides due to almost 7,000 feet of climbing and the 81 miles, most of us felt very good at the end of the day. We had the opportunity to see Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, and Black Hills National Forest. It was such a beautiful day. Seeing the famous monuments up close was also super cool. It amazed me at the level of detail the sculptors used to create the eyes, hair, and clothing on the president faces, and all using only sticks of dynamite. Before today I was unfamiliar with Crazy Horse. Similar to Mount Rushmore, it is a carved mountain depiction of a famous Lakota chief, Crazy Horse, with an outstretched bow and arrow riding a horse, or at least it will be once it is finally finished. It is much larger than Mount Rushmore. With 80 years of being in the works it still remains unfinished, likely due to budget constraints because the builders refuse to take government money to fund the project. Unfortunately we decided that the $5 cover entrance to the park was out of our price range so we took pictures at the gate.
Out of the three things we got to experience today, the Black Hills were the most impressive to me. Although I have mentioned this before, today actually felt like the West we passed by real mountains and got to smell pine. And even though there was a lot of climbing, being able to zoom back down at 40 mph made it worth it. So far Wyoming has been really pretty and I hope it stays that way.
BRB buying a cowboy hat
MB