We took a tour for the Mt Rushmore area on my birthday. We had a great time. We met the bus at the Ft Hays Chuckwagon Supper and Cowboy Show facility. They provided breakfast...pancakes and sausage or biscuits and gravy. I had the pancakes, Dale had the biscuits and gravy. Then we boarded our bus and headed to the hills at 9am. Our first stop was Mt Rushmore....truly awesome. You see pictures of it all your life but when you see it up in you face and it's SO REAL ,well, it gave me chills. When we left there we went up the Iron Mountains and went through Custer State Park. It was beautiful. We did not see any wildlife, however. No buffalo, big horn sheep or any of the other critters that live in the park. We stopped for lunch at the State Game Lodge - summer home to Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Dwight Eisenhower. I had Buffalo Stew....it was very good. Dale had Smoked Chicken Fry Bread. After lunch we continued our tour through Custer State Park and saw he Cathedral Spires. We went through the Needle Tunnel...it was a TIGHT squeeze. The opening of the tunnel is 102" and the bus was 96" so that was 3 inches on each side. We drove through the towns of Keystone, Custer and Hill City. We spent about an hour at the Crazy Horse museum. That was very interesting. It's a privately owned enterprise. They started on the project in 1948. The museum is quite extensive. They finally got the face finished on the mountain in 1998. At this rate I'm thinking will take 100 years to get it finished:) When we returned they provided a Chuck Wagon Supper of slice beef in BBQ sauce or grilled chicken. There were baked potatoes, baked beans, biscuits, applesauce and spiced cake. All quite yummy. After supper there was a Cowboy Music Show......"The Wrangers" were great. Funny, a variety of music...not just cowboy kind. We finally got home at 10pm. A very full day, especially for us. But we had a blast.
