Iron Mountain Road and Mt Rushmore

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Woke to clear, blue skies this morning, clouded up this afternoon and we had a few sprinkles, but nothing to get excited about.

Since the weather was so good, we decided to give the Iron Mountain Road a try. This is a road that goes through the mountains, on the way from Custer State Park to Mt Rushmore. It winds its way up through the mountain passes, and then at one point, it loops around and goes under itself! Good thing I don’t get motion sickness as bad as I did when I was a kid! It is really a beautiful drive. We came to a pull off and noticed that a truck had stopped in the road, going the opposite direction. So, we pulled over (where it was safe) and went to see what they were looking at. About 10’ down from the road was a mountain goat! First one we had seen!!

He appeared to be a young male, and I’m guessing here because his horns were not very big. He stood there the whole time, while we took pictures, so I don’t think he was very bothered by us. Phil was even kicking the guard rail to make him look up into the camera. It was a real treat!

Just towards the end of the drive, we went through another one of those tunnels in the rock, and as we came out of the tunnel, and framed by the tunnel itself, were the faces of Mt Rushmore! Of course, neither of the guys had their cameras out to snap the picture!! Just up the road though was an overlook, so we stopped and the guys took lots of pictures.

A short drive later, we stopped in Keystone for a late lunch. Phil had Buffalo Ribs, he said they were good, but tough.

Then we headed for Mt Rushmore. This is an awesome experience, and even though we had all been there before, we were still inspired!

Clouds had been building all day, and it finally started raining while we were there, so we left.

Today was the last day of our stay here and we had an awesome time! It is so much more fun to stay in one place long enough to really see the sights!