Day 7 (Friday). Our time in South Dakota was winding down. We relaxed in the morning and let the kids play mini-golf again and play on the playground. Then we headed to Crazy Horse Memorial. I had never heard of it before we started planning this trip, but when it is completed, it will be the largest man made memorial/monument in the world. MUCH larger than Mount Rushmore; even larger than the Great Pyramids in Egypt! The horse's head will be 22-stories high. Needless to say, it is an impressive site. It is about 25 minutes from Mount Rushmore and was begun in 1941, the same year they stopped working on Rushmore. One of the Rushmore sculptors, Korczak Ziolkowski, was invited to sculpt a memorial to the American Indians. The biggest reason the progress on Crazy Horse is so slow is because it accepts no federal funding: only private donations and the profits from visitors is used to help build it. Korczak died in 1982 but his wife and nine kids still work on it today.
Here is the memorial as it looks today. The bottom left picture is the sculptor's model. They have a visitor's center and viewing area, which is where the kids played in the teepee.
Kylene and Kyle rode a bus much closer to the memorial: I think they were within one mile of the base or something. The pictures below are from there. Believe it or not, this was Kylene's first time on a bus. At least that she remembers; it's still hard for me to believe and I'm trying to remember when she would have been on a bus previously! Anyway, she was excited about it. I waited in the van with two sleeping boys. We were all very tired by this point in our trip!
After Crazy Horse, we met the Rummlers for lunch in Custer City, then drove out to Jewel Caves. The hills surrounding Rapid City are full of underground caverns. The Jewel Cave that we toured (well, I didn't, but I'll get to that!) is the second largest in the United States but they think they've actually only discovered two percent of the cave. They think that some of the other large caves in this area may actually connect with Jewel Cave and it may become the largest. It's pretty cool to think about all the underground caverns, tunnels, etc., while you're driving around through all the mountains.
Anyway, we all bought tickets and went down the elevator shaft to start the tour. Never mind my claustrophobia: I was going to conquer this one! The tour guide did his introduction to the caves in a large, open room, during which the entire time Skyler wanted down and wanted to crawl through the railings and Spencer was whining about being scared. Skyler was also testing out his vocal skills and enjoying the loud echoing sound effects, all while the tour guide was trying to explain the history and important points to remember during the tour. I decided this wasn't going to work and when he was finished, I asked for a ride back up the elevator. Kyle, Kylene and the Rummler's finished the tour while we waited outside where the boys could run around and scream all they wanted. I was a little disappointed at first, but also okay that I didn't have to worry about the claustrophobia issue.
Kylene loved the tunnels and caves, the narrow passage ways, and the cool "bacon" and other rock formations. Here are a few pictures Kyle was able to snap.
After the caves, we sadly said goodbye to the Rummlers and headed back to our cabin to get packed, cleaned up, and ready for another long day of driving on Saturday.
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