Another day and yet another amazing National Park. We enter into the spectacular Black Hills National Forest, home to a National Monument that has been seen by billions of visitors from USA and around the world, Mt Rushmore. The heads of the Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson are carved into the granite mountain. Gutzon Borglum, a sculptor who had studied with Rodin, started the project. These heads were actually mostly dynamited out of the rock, about 90%. In fact after 18 months of work on Thomas Jefferson it was decided to dynamite him away and move his position. The whole work was completed in 14 years for the cost of just under $1,000,000. Borglum’s son, Lincoln, often supervised the work as Borglum himself was often away. It is quite inspiring to stand below these powerful faces of history. We opted to not pay the high parking price to get right to the base, as do many that visit this site, they are quite big enough to admire from the roadside.
Having taken it all in we move on to a new work in progress, that of a carving of Crazy Horse just a few miles further into the Black Hills near Custer. This memorial, to honour the North American Indian, was the brainchild of Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear. On June 3, 1948 work began on this most impressive granite sculpture of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Dakota warrior, riding his horse and pointing in to the distance. This complex is not just the worlds largest rock sculpture, all be it a work in progress of now 66 years, but a complex with a museum, and an education and cultural centre dedicated to the North American Indian, an Indian University and when possible a Medical Training Centre for Native Indians is planned. This is a life long project that shows the power of devotion and dedication. Korczak lived and breathed this project until his death in 1982. During his life, together with his wife Ruth, he had educated and inspired his 10 children, 7 of whom, together with the grandchildren, are still working to achieve this most amazing dream. This is a success story of mammoth proportions. Hopefully one day we will come back to see the finished project, but perhaps the magic of Crazy Horse is the journey.
The surrounding mountains are just spectacular to view with their massive granite spires and deep, tree filled gorges and ravines. It’s worth visiting regardless of seeing Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse. We love our time in this area and soak up the rugged beauty before moving on through Wyoming. These North Highland Plains are just awesome, so beautiful with rich colours and rolling hills.
We move on to an area in the north of Wyoming, stretching up into Montana, the Bighorn National Forest. It is truly the wild, wild west and one of the most gorgeous areas we have come to so far, a range of spectacular mountains. The route we take traverses along the west side of the mountains and then a winding road that takes us up and over the range. We find out later that this road is usually closed in the winter and our day there shows us why.
We have an interesting journey over the higher reaches with steady snowfall. The snow on the ground has been ploughed earlier but the fresh fall sees us making a slow and careful crossing of this beautiful land. The road to the Medicine Wheel, an ancient Indian sacred place likened to Stone Henge, is beyond our reach as the snow is thick on the ground so this is one spot to come back to another time.
As we make our descent into the valley and we snake our way down through magnificent cliff faces, sunshine comes out and the temperature goes up. We pass a logging truck and marvel at how they drive these vehicles on such winding roads with certain death if ever they plunge over the edge. We stop to take in the view and watch two of these vehicles meet and cross paths and negotiate on a bend below us, careful boys. We descend into a wildlife reserve area around a massive lake and the Bighorn River.
We see many signs for opportunity to watch the wildlife at night and realize what a rich variety there must be. We stop at the visitor centre nearby and meet a very helpful young woman who shows us that we have not finished our adventure in this area. She sets up a movie for us to show us the Bighorn Canyon and all the wildlife that abounds in this area and we are very lucky to see what time does not permit us to stop and experience ourselves. We have mentioned that our ultimate aim is to reach Glacier National Park and while we are watching our movie she does some extensive research for us and gives us very valuable advice that we will be very grateful for in the coming week. Thank you so much to this lovely girl, I think she was just pleased to have something to do as we were her only visitors.
Our lunch break is over and we head off to the Bighorn Canyon. We thought we had already experienced the magnificent sights this area has to give but we were wrong. The canyon is a series of jaw dropping views over the gorges carved by the mighty Bighorn River. Below is the water that is dammed further on through the gorges It is a clear green colour and is so far down below us, with towering rugged cliffs of rocks of many colours bordering its sides. We try to throw stones to reach the water but I think so many have done this that a beach of rock is formed and the water can’t be reached. In some spots one can see the animal trails snaking there way down to the waters edge, a dangerous journey. Our only wish was to be able to jump in a boat and take a tour along the snaking waterway to experience the view back up. No boat available right now so something else to come back for.
Our heads are absolutely overloaded with sights of beauty and nature at its very best that we are quite exhausted. We drive on to Cody, a wild west town devoted to Buffalo Bill. We are lucky to find very nice accommodation with a very helpful host as we have to stop still for an extra day for Georgia to do some very important work for her return to Perth and also to get a computer glitch fixed. We are relieved to be all sorted and rested as we head for our next adventure into Yellowstone National Park, a highly anticipated event.
Here We Come World 