Mount Rushmore - Black Hills - Custer State Park

Monday we moved from Platte River RV Park in Wyoming to Elk Mountain Campground in The Black Hills near Hot Springs, South Dakota.   Elk Mountain is a National Park campground with no services (no electric/water at camp sites and almost no cell phone coverage - no internet).    We spent a week here as there was a lot to see and we wanted to stay put over the Memorial Day weekend as it is hard to find campgrounds with availability on holiday weekends. 

Our Route

Our Campsite - all of the campsites were just pull-offs beside the road

Campground

 Campground

Double rainbow the first night

Mount Rushmore

We thoroughly enjoyed Mount /Rushmore which wasn't too far from the campground 

The entrance to Mount Rushmore

Bronze sculpture done by Lincoln Borglum as a tribute to his father, Gutzon Borglum who created Mount Rushmore (Lincoln completed it after the death of his father)

View from the base

Close-up

View through a crevice in a cave on the trail to the base of the monument

Another view from the trail

This is the view from the end of the trail

View of George Washington from the road leading to Mount Rushmore

Crazy Horse

About 20 miles down the road is the Crazy Horse Monument that has been in the works since its conception in the late 1930's. This is a privately funded work that is yet to be completed

Crazy Horse - Note the painted outline of the horses head on the right

This is the artists conception of the completed sculpture

Close-up of Crazy Horse

Custer State Park

We took the 18 mile scenic wildlife drive through Custer State Park which is just a few miles from the campground - lots of prairie dogs

Mother and pup

Heard of wild buffalo grazing

Huge bull buffalo

There was always a flock of birds around the buffalo

Bird getting a free ride across the road

Lots of pronghorns (American antelope)

Wild burro - burros were used on tours of nearby mountains up until the 60's - when this business folded they let the burros go wild and there is a significant population of wild burros and mules in the park

This one looks more like a horse so it is likely a mule