Devils Tower. Crazy Horse.

Today we saw Devil’s Tower! Way cooler in person than in pictures or the movies! It is even more impressive when you see it from afar! One of the legends of the Tower says that people trying to escape from a bear stood on this land, and it grew up like a tree to keep them away from the bear. The bear tried and tried to climb up the mountain, creating the stripes you see today from his claws. There has been some conflict with the name of the Tower, as many Native Americans feel it is a sacred place and “Devil” has too negative a connotation. They have tried to change it’s name to the original name of Big Bear Lodge, or something similar to that. After touring around the Tower, we headed toward South Dakota. Western South Dakota is awesome!

We did a quick little detour to see Deadwood, and just in time to see a gunfight show. This town is very touristy, but in a BEAUTIFUL spot!! Lots of fun cheesy things to do.

We went back up to the 90 and continued on toward Mt. Rushmore. Again, seeing this from the distance is quite remarkable! It is up high and quite immense! Once we arrived there (and paid $8.00 for parking) we had a decision to make – do we watch the Mt. Rushmore 9:00 show or the 9:00 Crazy Horse Laser Show. We decided to go for the Laser Show. So we zoomed off to Crazy Horse and were very surprised to be asked for $20.00 to enter. The laser show started late, but it was pretty cool - I am still not sure if it was $20.00 cool though.


crazy horse monument

I think I will forever wonder how the Rushmore show was. Crazy Horse Memorial still has quite a lot of work to be done, so far the face is completed, and a slight outline of the horses head. It was nice to sit in our Crazy Creeks and listen to the music in the cool night air though! We ended up spending the night at the parking lot of a trailhead/campground in the Black Hills National Forest.Quote of the day: “Whoa Pardner! Gun Fight Ahead,” street sign in Deadwood.