Summer Trip 2017 - Mount Rushmore

Hey Readers,

There are going to be series of posts on a trip I took with my daughter, Celeste.  They are not quilt related so if you are looking to read about quilts...look for posts that are not titled with Summer Trip....

For everyone else....

We took this trip at the end of May and the beginning of June.  I don't like to post to social media when I travel.  But I don't want to forget this trip as it was a trip of a lifetime!  So I decided to blog about each of the days adventures.  Every day we took a hundred or more photos, but I am going to limit the number I include to my favorite 10 to 12 photos.

I had driven to Denver and got there on a Thursday night late.  I was late coming in Thursday as there had been tornado warnings on the interstate, so I had sat in a Hampton Inn lobby near the Kansas Colorado border for about an hour and a half waiting for the weather to clear.

Friday I ran a number of last minute errands, bought a couple of books on CD for us to listen to, bought a rain jacket, socks, bought a new camera, picked up our national park pass, filled the car and just got ready in general.

Saturday morning Celeste and I got up fairly early, loaded the car and hit the road.

We drove to Mount Rushmore and did the hike around it even tho it was raining off and on.  This hike is rated an easy hike and is fairly short...  6 tenths of a mile.  It is a loop trail that has a lot of stairs!!  Even tho it was short, I had to rest a time or two...but pictures needed to be taken anyway.
Wink, wink!

Took a lot of pictures out of the car window...If you zoom in you can see the profile of Crazy Horse.

First view of Mount Rushmore..you can see the storm clouds rolling in but we pressed forward anyway.

After entering the park, you can really get a good view.
 

As you do the hike around there are points that you can get the best view of each president.

Here is a photo of a sculpture of the guy who was the designer...it is an amazing monument to see and to see the story of the process to sculpt it was amazing.  Definitely worth the trip...

After we left Rushmore we were headed to the city of our first night in a Airbnb.  On a whim we stopped at a drive through animal park.  While we saw a lot of neat animals, it was painful as the you crept along at about 2 miles an hour...

Our first airbnb experience was a good one.  Although the first place we rented was  studio... I need to confess that I am a noisy sleeper and Celeste is a light sleeper, so that is not the best combo.  We quickly came to the conclusion that we were better with accommodations that gave us separate sleeping quarters.  Fortunately we had only booked two places that were studios...so the rest of the trip should be more restful for Celeste!

First day on the road was a success.  Next day heading to Big Horn National Park.  :)  That will be another post!