2013 - October 2nd - Mt. Rushmore

Starting this day on our trip, we drove the 20 minutes from our hotel to Mt. Rushmore. We had been there in 1976 and Barb had never been there. As what will go down in history as the infamous 2013 Government shutdown, we knew from the TV news that the park would be closed and that we wouldn't be able to get as close as we wanted. The news on Monday night had said that the police were not allowing traffic to stop on the highway and had shown video of this, but we wanted to take the chance anyway. It was early morning and only about 12 or so other cars, so we had no problem stopping and taking some pictures. The visitor center entrance was closed and only the main highway open. We couldn't get those great pictures from the outdoor patio with Mt. Rushmore in back of us as we did in '76, but we were able to see all of the faces. 


We even saw some Mountain Goats by the roadside ..


In the little town before Mt. Rushmore, we stopped to see some of the wood carvings that were spectacular.

 

There are a few more pictures at this photo album link.