Tour guides really do make stuff up

I packed in a lot of site-seeing Labor Day weekend. I left Colorado (more about that later) the Saturday morning of Labor Day Weekend. Rapid City, South Dakota was my final destination but I made stops along the Oregon Trail on the way there. Chimney Rock Pioneer Crossing was the only place on my bucket list, but in doing my research I found a few more places nearby that were worth the stop Courthouse Rock, Jail Rock, and Scotts Bluff. They are all rock formations that the pioneers used as landmarks on the Oregon Trail. After stopping at Courthouse & Jail Rocks I noticed there were signs on the road that said “Historical Marker” … I stopped a couple of times but quickly realized if I stopped at all of them I’d never make it to Rapid City.

I packed the car at my Colorado Springs Airbnb and was on my way at 6am. I made it to the first stop by 10:30am. I figured ½ an hour at each would be enough time and I’d be on my way to Rapid City by noon. Not even close. I didn’t leave the last stop, Scotts Bluff, until about 2:30pm. Not only because of the extra stops I made, but the visitors centers have great museums with pioneer artifacts and Scotts Bluff had a few short hiking trails I took to get better view. I finally arrived in Rapid City about 7pm. It was long day but well worth it.

Doing all this driving I see many beautiful places. I keep saying I should have bought a camera to mount on my windshield to capture it all. There are so many times when, while driving, I’ll make a turn or come over a hill or around a bend and the view takes my breath away. Any time I’m on the phone during one of these drives (usually with my BFF, Melissa) inevitably I say “you would not believe what I’m seeing right now”. There have been times when I’ve lifted my phone and put it on video to record it. Probably not the safest thing to do. For that reason, before leaving for Rapid City, I booked a bus tour for Sunday. It was a full day that packed in (almost) everything I wanted to see.

The tour started with a cowboy breakfast at Ft Hayes – the filming site of Dances with Wolves. (I’m going to have to watch that movie, I’ve never seen it.) First stop, Mt. Rushmore! That was high on my list of things to see. It was worth the wait! We were able to spend an hour there. I didn’t really have time in that hour to do the hike that brings you closer so I sat in the amphitheater and just stared at it. I’m glad I didn’t do the hike, I wouldn’t have been able to take it all in as much as I did sitting there for a while. It’s so impressive.

From there we went up Iron Mountain, the view of The Needles is spectacular. The bus stopped a few places for better views of Mt. Rushmore. There are several tunnels on the road up Iron Mountain – they were all carved out so they could frame the sculpture. These are the things you learn on the tour and not just driving on your own. One interesting fact about Mt Rushmore, one of the men who named it and worked on it was David Swanzey was married to Carrie Ingalls. Do you know who that was? … if Stefania is reading this she knew that name immediately! Last name sound familiar? Her sister, Laura, was a famous writer. The tour bus guide told us she was instrumental in Mt Rushmore’s creation … I did a little research and couldn’t find evidence of that but did find that info about her husband naming it and working on the carving. She is a big deal in Keystone. If I ever get back there, I’d like to spend more time in Keystone … I just drove through it while there.

The rest of the day consisted of Custer State Park, State Game Lodge, Needles Highway, Sylvan Lake, and Crazy Horse Memorial. A lot to do in one day. Crazy Horse was also impressive but as it is right now it doesn’t hold a candle to Mt. Rushmore, at least that’s my opinion.

Sylvan Lake was beautiful; I actually went back there twice during the week to have dinner and lounge by the lake… had to get in my last few rays before the weather gets bad. The tour ended back at Ft Hayes with a Chuckwagon Supper & Show. The show was actually pretty good. Before lining up for the buffet dinner they led us in a prayer. Not something you see every day – especially where I come from. I, of course, didn’t mind the prayer to ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ’ but I’m sure there were some people in the crowd that weren’t too happy.

After driving, doing all the site seeing on Saturday and Sunday you’d think I just relaxed on Labor Day. You would be wrong … one more place I needed to see in South Dakota, Badlands National Park. I was out the door and on my way by 5:30am, saw the sun rise over the Badlands and at one point was surrounded by bison. Now that was cool. I had seen some videos where the bison came right up to cars, so I wasn’t nervous. It was really cool. I stopped my car in the middle of the road and just watched them for about half an hour. The Badlands are beautiful – they get their name because they were so difficult to travel in the days of the horse and wagon. I saw bison, prairie dogs, and goats. I was exhausted that afternoon when I got back to the hotel.

Other than taking in the sunshine at Sylvan Lake there was one more thing I needed to do that week in Rapid City, the Lighting Ceremony at Mt. Rushmore. I was on the fence about going and was happy that I did. It’s at 8pm every night – a beautiful ceremony. A park ranger gives the history of the sculpture and then they show a short film about each of the four presidents. At the end they play America the Beautiful, everyone in the crowd was singing, and they light it up in the middle of the song. Then they played our National Anthem. It was a very moving ceremony. I thought going on a Tuesday night after Labor Day there wouldn’t be many people there – nope, there were about 1,000 people. The ceremony ends with all military in attendance, active and retired, on stage to lower the flag.

I was in Rapid City until Friday. After work I drove ½ way to my next destination and spent the night in Sioux Falls, SD. Saturday morning, I went to Sioux Falls Park and the USS South Dakota Memorial. The memorial made the stop worth it, the falls – not so much. It’s in the middle of the city and the surrounding area isn’t very impressive. But at least I got my 3 miles in.

Next Stop …. BASEBALL!!!