6 Days Road Trip – ( III ) Mount Rushmore National Memorial

June 30, Sioux Falls in South Dakota, this town should be nothing to visit. In the morning, we got up, drove the road. We along Highway 90, from east to west across South Dakota. From the largest city of Sioux Falls (Population: 159,908 (2012)) to the second largest city of Rapid City (Population: 69,854 (2012)) in the U.S. state of South Dakota, all the way is flat straight. I remember a guide book describes, driving the highway in the United States, it is very boring. Scenery like a computer screen, it will not change, I think he must be passed by South Dakota. Along the way we saw only a few things: corn, sunflower, pasture cattle, gas stations, convenience stores, and farm house.


Buffalo Gap National Grassland

When approaching Rapid City, we feel that change grasslands into mountain. Buffalo Gap National Grassland, which brings us into the valley. A piece of rocks, a piece of weed, a few passing vehicles, makes a simple feeling of nature. 

Photo by Bo. W

Photo by Bo. W

Badlands National Parks 

Badlands National Parks is a state park in South Dakota. It is to Rapid City, must pass a state park on Highway 90. Originally, we did not plan to Badlands National Parks, but it has been in front, and on the go.

Photo by Bo. W

Photo by Bo. W

Photo by Bo. W

When the climb up the hill, as if there is a feeling of standing between heaven and earth.

Wall Drug Store

Photo by Bo. W

From entering South Dakota, we have found that some Wall Drug billboards beside Highway 90. After a Rapid City, Wall Drug billboards on more and more. Maybe about average 1 / 8mile there is a billboard, Wall Drug Coffee 5 cents, Free Ice Water, Wall Drug gallery, Online Web, and even ATM also has a Wall Drug advertising. Looked at a lot of Wall Drug advertising sign, we are very curious, and just off exit 109, go straight to Wall's Drug Store in this located.

Photo by Bo. W

This is known as "America's favorite roadside attractions" --Wall Drug. It has a wonderful story. Ted Hustead, used his inheritance to buy the town's pharmacy in 1931. Business started slowly, until a few years, Ted's wife, Dorothy, recommended the establishment of advertising on the highway side, to provide free water for the driver. It worked! Travelers have been coming and business had never been better. The next summer the family hired eight girls to help with the busy summer crowds.

 
 

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Photo by Bo. W

From Wall Drug to Mount Rushmore was a short road. The wilderness of the plains into the forest, and Mount Rushmore is in a forest. Mount Rushmore National Memorial, which is located in Keystone, South Dakota.

 

Photo by Bo. W

It has the world's greatest mountain carving. These 60-foot high faces, 500 feet up, look out over a setting of pine, spruce, birch, and aspen in the clear western air. This epic sculpture features the faces of four exalted American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

 

At 6:00 am, we drove from Sioux Falls to Mount Rushmore National Memorial, travel 368 miles. We toured the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, Badlands National Parks, and Wall Drug Store. When we arrived at Mount Rushmore National Memorial, probably spent more than six hours。

After 2:00 pm, from Mount Rushmore out, we drove the car, speeding on American highways. We seem to watch a fast screening of the film. We travel over the road, leaving the sweat, toured scenery. They are like the wind outside the window, blowing away. That long journey, it was this roaring engine sound quickly shortened, narrowed the scenery for a moment, became a partial fragment, our heart and legs are no longer tired. Town of Cody, WY, it is our next place to stay, 383 miles long, six and a half hours of time, waiting for us to experience new scenery.