Day 8 The highlight was The Badlands National Park, also Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park

                                                Badlands National Park

This is so amazing
This is beautiful
This is surreal
This is so amazing

We repeated those statements many times on our drive through the Badlands.  There's so much to tell such as why it got the name:  French fur trappers in the 1700's didn't like the terrain that was so hard to travel, so they called it "mauvaises terres" or badlands.  They stretch out 244,000 acres!

                                                      Vernon walks up to a look out point

                                      This buffalo was grazing right beside the road

                                               And these 3 were beside the road                                                                further up

The smell of camomille was in the air whenever we stopped to get out of the truck at overlook spots.

                                                                     "Praire dog town"


                                                        Wounded Knee
The Lakota Indians were the indigenous people in this area.  One thing that impressed me was that they were very skilled horsemen.  They hunted buffalo with bow and arrow on horseback!  probably usually in a full run. (no hands on the reins!!) There are some well known paintings depicting this.  Sadly, many Lakota and Sioux were wiped out by the U.S. Army campaign against them in 1890 which led to the massacre of between 150 and some estimate up to 300 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee located near the Badlands.  Originally referred to as a battle, "in reality it was a tragic and avoidable massacre" according to history.com.  As great as our nation is in so many ways, the way we as a nation treated the people who lived here for centuries before we came -- was a shameful time in our nation's history.



                      Mount Rushmore National Monument

                                         a busy day at Mt Rushmore National                                                                 Monument

                                      part of the monument grounds were closed for                                                        renovations

A scene from Alfred Hitchcock's movie "North by Northwest" was filmed here:  the monument cafe where Eva Marie Saint pretended to shoot Cary Grant has changed from wood style to more modern style.

Great presentation on the sculptor who created the 60 foot 'faces' in the Sculptor's Studio where Borglum had his working models.  
The workers on the actual monument (12x larger than this working model) used jackhammers to make holes in the granite then put sticks of dynamite in.  They used drills for the finishing work and kept the blacksmith busy sharpening the drill bits -- one would last about 20 minutes before needing to be sharpened.
He said Borglum wanted to highlight the men who made our country what it is today:
George Washington:  who founded our country/first president
Thomas Jefferson:  who expanded our borders with the Louisiana purchase
Abraham Lincoln:  who kept the union together in the Civil War
Theodore Roosevelt:  who made us an world economic power with the purchase of the Panama Canal

In addition to all his accomplishments, did you know that Thomas Jefferson is credited with the
first ice cream recipe in America!

Then there's Donald Trump who bought the continent Greenland to secure his legacy. Haha.




                                        Custer State Park

It rained most of the time while we were in Custer State Park.  But we did get to see a herd of buffalo!    And 2 elk dashed across the road in front of us and into the field to graze.

                                                    Double rainbow in the town of Custer!

Tomorrow starts our 2? day trek to Glacier National Park!