Mt Rushmore At Last

We were rained out on Friday, but Saturday dawned blue and clear and hot once again and we were off to see Gutzon Borglum's mammoth creation.  We drove through Keystone, making sure to stop at the Silk Fudge Shop which was highly recommended by friends who had gone to Mt Rushmore the previous year.  We were not disappointed...yum!  I know, fudge in the morning sounds totally weird, but we weren't going to pass through Keystone again so we had fudge at 10am and were happy.  We pulled into the parking lot and amused ourselves by shouting out different state license plates while we looked for an open space.  After snagging some decent spots, we piled out and entered the viewing area and Avenue of Flags that leads to the amphitheater.  The kids oohed and aahed upon seeing the famous sculpture and I turned to see Chad's reaction, since he hadn't said anything yet, but he just shrugged and remarked, "I thought it would be bigger."  We laughed at that because it is true, the visitor's center is so far removed from the actual carving that you don't get a good feel for Mt Rushmore's size.  Plus all the pictures you see are close-ups, so you think that when you visit the monument you will be a lot closer than you actually are.  It didn't help that we had seen Devil's Tower just two days previous because you walk around the Tower and it just looms over you.  Mt Rushmore doesn't loom, it sits on its lofty pedestal and you gaze at it from afar...kind of like Romeo and Juliet.  Chad did quickly add, however, that it was still cool.  :) 

Ahh!  Don't face the sun to take a picture!!

Here's a cool little cave we found while hiking around Rushmore.

Our plan after Rushmore was to stop at a picnic area for lunch and then head down to Jewel Cave before starting back to Casper.  We did find a fun place to eat off the beaten track with clean outhouses, potable water, fun rocks to climb and duel on and lots of squirrels to entertain the kids, but after we had set up and were cooking hotdogs the local forest service ranger stopped by and charged us $4 a family to have lunch.  We're pretty sure he just pocketed the money but, oh well.  Grace finally lost a tooth that had been wiggling mightly and, since Eli lost one the day before, we snapped a picture of them together.  We ate lunch, the kids ran and got their fidgets out, and Sandra became the Mighty Squirrel Tamer who got the little beasties to eat out of her hand.

The toothless wonders!

 We drove past lots and lots of local Rushmore-area caves on the way to Jewel Cave, which later made us go "Shucks!", but we were excited to see Jewel Cave which had lots of rave reviews.  There was, unfortunately, a wild fire down by Wind Cave, which forced the Forest Service to close it, and thus Jewel Cave's traffic was more than doubled.  We just missed getting a space on the tour by minutes and we didn't want to backtrack an hour or so to visit a different cave, so we turned for home and consoled the kids with the promise of pizza and rootbeer floats when we got back to Casper.