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Monuments

It’s up early(ish) in the morning, lots of ground to cover on a two monument day that will see me starting in a state, crossing another and end up in the third.

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Long day on the bike

The route from the campsite to Mount Rushmore is a delight, swerving ascending and descending through the Black Hills National Forest and offering scenic views as well as exciting riding. I film some of it and at some point I’ll have the time to put it together into a short clip.

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First sight from afar

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Even the zoom cannot reach that far.

The first view of the Monument is from afar, deep in the middle of the forest track, but it’s impressive none the less. It takes no more than half an hour to get to the car park and, after forking out an extraordinary $11 parking fee, that however will allow me to park there for a year, I’m in the complex.

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Coming out of the tunnel.

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and getting into the site, those are the flags of all the 50 states.

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Better from here

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Lincoln

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And the face.

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Washington

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and up the nostrils

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Jefferson

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Not quite sure why they picked him.

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Teddy

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Like the glasses.

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From just below

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From the trees

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Enough already

It is rather curious how such an idea even got put into practice. It is also curious how, going around with a camera it is hardly possible to stop oneself from taking pictures. Surely there must be an upper limit to the number of pictures that any one site I visit deserves. I think I tested the limit both here and at the tower later on.

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What a fab name.

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And it’s state 4

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Sturgis at his best, lots of people talking bike porn.

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Refuelling like our ancestors.

So, Mount Rushmore was not a disappointment. The next landmark I was aiming for was in a whole new state: Wyoming. The route there took me through some interesting spots. First was Deadwood, a well known mining town of the late 19th century, read gold rush. I only stopped for some coffee and to refuel and could not resist taking a picture of the Chubby  Chipmunk, what a splendid name for something.

Then, after crossing the state border, and not too far from the Devil’s Tower I made a pit stop in Aladdin (Population 15) where i refuelled on a pump that was straight out of Back To The Future, I mean the bit when they are in the 60s. At the pump/shop there was a little rock concert going on, all sort of things go on in this part of the country as part of the Sturgis Motorbike Rally. I stopped a while, had a cigarette and then moved on. Fortunately I deployed my wet weather gear as I was going to get to the tower under the rain.

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Amazing from east

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From south

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Stunning views too from the trail.

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Basalt details high up.

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From west

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and from north

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Best one of the lot.

Like i’ve come to expect in the USA, all these attractions are well managed and run, the parking leads directly to a path that goes all the way around the Tower, equipped with nice info spots. The reason I came is because I saw the tower in both Close Encounters and on the cover of an LP, not sure if it was Neil Young or Jackson Brown, but it always fascinated me that the earth could have a horn.

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Prayer ribbons attached by native americans

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On the way away

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And from the distance

Well, when I got three miles away from the tower I finally managed to stop taking pictures. Ahead there were a coupe of hundred miles of rather straight road separating me from the novelty stop in Nebraska. I did not know it at the time, but I went through the most beautiful part of country I had encountered so far, with lots of wildlife and even a near miss of a deer crossing the road in front of me and the sight, for the first time, of bisons.

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On the road to Nebraska first sighting of Bison

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Big head.

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Funny creatures

After the nature reserve, as I was approaching the border with Nebraska, the road straightened, the land flattened and the sky started to turn really dark, there was obviously trouble ahead.

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