Today's blog entry will be abbreviated due to issues with connectivity in the hotel at Sturgis.
Made an early start in Rapid City, SD. Left for Mt. Rushmore around 10:30 or so. Nice drive up 16 west... lot's of curves in the road and beautiful scenery. Arrived at the monument by 11:00. Mandatory $10 parking fee... fortunately no entrance fee to the actual facility. I have to say that the Mt. Rushmore monument is quite impressive. According to some of the folks I chatted with, they've added a lot over the years. Took a LOT of pictures with both wide angle and telephoto lenses... can't wait to see how they came out.
Next stop... Crazy Horse Mountain. This is just a short drive from Mt. Rushmore. Another $10 parking fee. You can see the monument almost as soon as you drive in. It's huge... much bigger than Mt. Rushmore In fact, in the orientation video I saw, they mentioned that the Mt. Rushmore monument would fit in side Crazy Horse's head! Anyway, shortly after I arrived they announced that they would be blasting a section of the mountain in three minutes. How lucky was I!! They blew a whistle at the three minute point and then counted down from 10 seconds. I had my camera at the ready with the continuous shot option set. At 1 second I started a sequence of about 20 shots. Then the "boom" hit. What a blast! Toured the rest of the monument area and scored a piece of the rock blasted from the mountain.
Left Crazy Horse and headed off to Sturgis via Rapid City. Not a long ride. Drove through the downtown area where the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is staged. Let's just say it looked like a ghost town compared to what I've seen in pictures and videos. Finally found the Super 8, checked in and called it a day. I won't bore you with the problems I encountered at the hotel but I'll think twice about staying at another Super 8 unless that's the only option.
Until tomorrow....
Made an early start in Rapid City, SD. Left for Mt. Rushmore around 10:30 or so. Nice drive up 16 west... lot's of curves in the road and beautiful scenery. Arrived at the monument by 11:00. Mandatory $10 parking fee... fortunately no entrance fee to the actual facility. I have to say that the Mt. Rushmore monument is quite impressive. According to some of the folks I chatted with, they've added a lot over the years. Took a LOT of pictures with both wide angle and telephoto lenses... can't wait to see how they came out.
Next stop... Crazy Horse Mountain. This is just a short drive from Mt. Rushmore. Another $10 parking fee. You can see the monument almost as soon as you drive in. It's huge... much bigger than Mt. Rushmore In fact, in the orientation video I saw, they mentioned that the Mt. Rushmore monument would fit in side Crazy Horse's head! Anyway, shortly after I arrived they announced that they would be blasting a section of the mountain in three minutes. How lucky was I!! They blew a whistle at the three minute point and then counted down from 10 seconds. I had my camera at the ready with the continuous shot option set. At 1 second I started a sequence of about 20 shots. Then the "boom" hit. What a blast! Toured the rest of the monument area and scored a piece of the rock blasted from the mountain.
Left Crazy Horse and headed off to Sturgis via Rapid City. Not a long ride. Drove through the downtown area where the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is staged. Let's just say it looked like a ghost town compared to what I've seen in pictures and videos. Finally found the Super 8, checked in and called it a day. I won't bore you with the problems I encountered at the hotel but I'll think twice about staying at another Super 8 unless that's the only option.
Until tomorrow....
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