Friday, August 13, 2010

Wind Cave, Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Sturges - August 7, 2010

I had never seen Mt. Rushmore, so Ken insisted that we stop by on the drive to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. On the way to Rushmore, we stopped for a tour of Wind Cave. There were lots of limestone caves in South Dakota near Rushmore. If we'd had more time, I would have liked to tour a few more, especially Jewel Cave which advertised many crystal formations. However, even with more time, the tours weren't free -- costing about $10-$20/person, which would certainly add up!

Our Tour Guide
Wind Cave Box work on the ceiling. This formation is mostly only found in Wind Cave in the world.
We also stopped to see Crazy Horse -- an unfinished rock sculpture of an Indian riding a horse. It was $20 to get a close up view, so we settled for this photo from the turnaround.
We opted for a similar tour of Rushmore. Just past the $10 parking we pulled off the highway for a photo.

Throughout the South Dakota area, there were lots of bikers everywhere. On the highways, on the roadsides, at the gas stations, etc. Many of the gas stations had tents out front with signs that said "Welcome bikers!", "$10 Buffalo Burgers", and "Sturges T-shirts 4 for $28". This piqued our interest and we decided to check out the town of Sturges, South Dakota. It was dark by the time we arrived, but as far as I could tell, it was pretty much just a mecca of bikers, sturges t-shirts (4 for $30) and expensive burgers...? The official biker rally was still a week away, and it was already completely packed. There was lots of free parking for bikers, but not for oversized vans so parking was a bit of a pain. When we got down to the main drags, it smelled pretty horrible between the biker exhaust and the cigarettes. We walked a couple blocks and then headed back to the van for dinner. Would be a great place to get a tattoo and/or buy leather stuff. The bike lighting booth was also pretty cool ~$5k to get your bike decked with lots of LEDs, tron style.

2 comments:

PJL said...

Dude - looking very Kurt Cobain

Ken said...

Are you saying i look like a rock star, herion additict, or suicidal?