October 1st – Rapid City, South Dakota Weather
–Clear 7 C
Total Kilometers this trip – 3620.2 Kilometers today – 0
Today was very wonderful.
The weather was clear, and although it was clear in the morning, the
temperature only went to 23 C, the wind kept it cool.
We headed out along Hwy 16 towards Mount Rushmore, there
were a number of attractions, but being this late in the season they were
closed – Old MacDonalds Farm etc. There
are others open which we intend to see tomorrow.
Our first place of stopping was Keystone, a small community
which blossoms during the summer season.
There is also two chainsaw woodcarvers, Dahls brothers from
Minnesota. They have some very wonderful
carvings, quite a talent.
We headed up to Mount Rushmore – spectacular. Those fellows did an amazing job under
difficult circumstances.
We walked along the pathway to get a closer view and to see
some of the tools which they used.
At the gift store, there was a special guest signing
autographs. His name was Nick Clifford,
91 years old and he was one of the sculptors on this project. Vadie got him to sign a picture of Mount
Rushmore.
The hills around this area are beautiful with the trees
changing color. We decided to do the
Iron Mountain Road drive. I come from
the Sunshine Coast in BC and the road is continually winding, but this beats it
by far. You go under the overpass then
make a tight 270 deg turn to go on the overpass. There was also 4 tunnels to go through,
definitely not made for big trucks and large motorhomes.
This road continued on to where there was some farming
We drove from Iron Mountain Road to Hwy 16 and onto
Custer. At Custer there were numerous
attractions as well but most were closed too.
One that was open was the National Museum of Woodcarvers. When you think that most of this work was
done in the 40’s to 60’s it is incredible.
The carver wanted to make the wooden carving to animate, so under the
carvings were mechanical belts, pulleys and arms. This is well worth seeing.
Special People – Mark and Mike – management of the Kemano Hydro
Electric Station. Lets keep it running
guys.
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