South Dakota Part 2: Mt Rushmore

After the Badlands, we drove over to stay the night at a hotel overlooking Mt Rushmore.

The scenery changes quite a bit away from the Badlands.

Unfortunately, it was a fair bit colder at Mt Rushmore - so cold, in fact, that it was snowing, and the view of Mt Rushmore from our window looked like this.  (That rock formation that you can see the outline of in the distance is Mt Rushmore.)

The next morning we woke up to snow on the ground and -5C.  Ouch!

It wasn't snowing anymore, so you could see Mt Rushmore in the distance.  Barely.

There were some birds wandering around in the morning that we initially thought were pheasants (as SD is famous for them), but later discovered are probably female wild turkeys.

Not only pheasants - some deer were wandering around the grounds as well.  They don't seem to mind the cold.

And here it was - Mt Rushmore.  It is even more ridiculous in person.  Supposedly the monument is to the 4 presidents and what they did for America, which was founding (Washington), expanding (Jefferson purchased half of the country from the French in 1803 called the Louisiana Purchase), Theodore Roosevelt developing (Theodore Roosevelt promoted construction of the Panama Canal to help US trade), and preservation (Lincoln ended the Civil War).

The best part of going on a day when it snowed is that George Washington looks like he's worked up a bit of a sweat there.  I didn't know but apparently the plan was for the monument to be much bigger and include their bodies as well - until they ran out of cash.

 In case you're wondering,  yes, it did really snow, and yes, it was pretty cold.

There are 5 parts to this series - this is part 2.  You can also read part 1, part 3, part 4 and part 5.