Guess what we woke up to today at 7am? Sun!!! Yes, can you believe it, our 3rd day in a row the sun has been shining when we get up!! We feel so blessed!! What a difference it makes travelling in nice weather!
After breakfast we headed for the Needles Hwy and along the way passed The Crazy Horse Memorial. This is a work in progress that was started in 1948 at the request of Chief Standing Bear of the Oglala Sioux who wanted “the white man to know the red man has great heroes too”. Due to limited time today we did not go into the park but could see the carving from the road. We then drove the Needles Highway that stretches 14 miles through granite structures and pine covered mountains The Needles Eye is one oh the most memorable granite needles along the drive with its signature “eye” formed by countless years of rain, ice and winds. We got there around 8am and it was great because there was very little traffic.
Al had been there before with a group on bikes, but it was so busy they could not stop at the top. Today we stopped, and enjoyed the beauty of the rock formations. The drive up and down from the Needles Eye was spectacular and I took some videos going through tunnels. This was my first time trying the video setting on my camera! It will be very hard to select photos for my blog from here as I had so many nice ones! After the Needles Hwy we headed to Mount Rushmore. We took one of the back roads into the center and it was actually better than the Needles Hwy! What a sweet surprise to ride on a road that was made just for motorcycles!! There was some kind of cycling group though all along these roads and we had to be very careful when going around corners etc. There were some cyclists that felt they could take up the entire road at times!
When we got our first glimpse of Mt Rushmore it really took your breath away. Mt. Rushmore National Monument is one of the most popular Black Hills’ destinations, featuring the faces of four US Presidents carved in granite, symbolizing freedom and democracy in America. The Monument features the faces of four United States Presidents – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln – carved in granite by the late sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, with each chiselled face as tall as a 6-story building. Mt Rushmore was completed in 1941 which took 14 years from start to finish with not one single fatality recorded! We stayed about an hour at the memorial and as we headed back to the hwy we saw the cutest little deer on the side of the road. 
Further down the road we passed 2 herds of buffalo! Today it was windy again!! Very very windy !!! It was a ride to hold your helmet on with both hands!! We had to make a decision whether to drive through the badlands or visit the famous “Wall Drug Store”. Since the guys told us the badlands was very boring and would take an extra hour to ride, we all agreed to go to the Wall Drug Store. We spent about an hour there and it certainly is a place you could get lost in!! When we left, we headed for somewhere to stay the night and went past the badlands. 
We drove 6 miles off the hwy to see the entrance to the badlands and from what I saw, I really wish we had taken that road!! I know it is just rocks etc, but I think it would have been fascinating to see all the different formations and colours!! The hwy we were on was boring, not much at all, but I did notice that in this area there is much more farming of crops. Tonight we are in a Best Western and just relaxing. It was a long day, but another great day! We lost an hour today with the time change much to Pat's sorrow. She would like to keep the 4 hours we gained at the begining of our trip!! Here is a video I took while riding on the back of the bike on the Needles Hwy
No comments:
Post a Comment