Rushmore...better than I remembered

We woke up in Rapid City to go down to an extremely rapid waterslide.

 

Note the whitewater streaming out of the slide! Strangely, no panicky children when confronted by this.

A this point we had a decision to make between a 9 1/2 hour drive to Yellowstone to make our reservation or a 10 1/2 hour drive with an hour stop in Mt. Rushmore. With a 10am start out of the hotel, naturally we too the latter.

The approach to Rushmore was classic American commercialism

 

I had remembered Rushmore as being disappointing from a previous trip, but it was actually impressive. You could get much closer to the heads and there were some lovely trails with interpretive sites along. Some pics:

After that, the long desolate trip to Yellowstone. Note the continued Chamber of Commerce weather.