After yesterdays high of 5°C, it was a shock to walk out to the truck at 0°C in the snow this morning! When we awoke the visibility was poor with snow, this did not bode well for seeing Mt. Rushmore. After breakfast I took a look at the weather radar to see whether we could expect an improvement as the day progressed. Amazingly the weather system causing all the problems was to the east of us, and although fairly stationary, Mt. Rushmore was on the edge of the disturbance, but could be affected at any time. Instead of hanging around the hotel waiting for the weather to clear (about 3 days!!) we decided to get moving before the weather moved further west. As we drove the 20 odd miles, it seemed as though we had made the wrong decision as the visibility decreased further as we climbed up to 5500ft. As we reached the area, things started to improve a little
Wooden Bridge at Entrance to Mt. Rushmore
“Miners Tunnel”
The closer we got, the better the visibility, so we headed into the park area to be met by the camouflaged park security.
Next are a few pictures of the carvings, the last one taken in return for me taking photos for a Chinese group!
On the way out of the park we were able to get a profile view of one of the carvings.
The weather deteriorated once we left the park, so although conditions were far from ideal, we at least got to see something!
We next traveled cross country out of South Dakota, into Wyoming. Again there were miles of nothingness.
But occasionally bizarre things turned up.
We finally got onto the I-25 for the final run into Casper. We braved the 1C temperature and went off for a 1.6 mile walk to claim another geocache. Now it’s back to the hotel, which seems to be packed with high school kids on some sort of trip…. could be a noisy night.