Mt. Rushmore

A few years ago we were looking at a map and realized that Mt. Rushmore was only about 650 miles from us, which is about the same that we drive to Southern California and it would only take a day to get there and a day to get home. So we decided that we really wanted to go, it was only a question of when. Dan and I love planning road trips and some happen sooner than others. Last year we didn't make it on any long trips so we were determined to go somewhere new this year. As we planned, it started out a lot longer, but then reality checked in, along with expenses and we decided it was just to South Dakota and back, not a huge trip like we dreamed. But that will happen someday. Dan's work has just been so busy he didn't have a lot of time to take off either.
This is as you walk up to Mt. Rushmore. On a side note, we had started playing the out of state license plate game, which is great to do when you go to a National Park, especially one like Mt. Rushmore. We kept track and saw so many plates from different states and from different places in Canada. More on that later.
This was our first real glimpse of Mt. Rushmore. We are just on the other side of the entrance and right next to the Information/Visitor Center.

Dan & the kids. Me and the kids.

Getting closer. This is by the Avenue of Flags. Our state of Utah was near the end closes to the memorial.

I thought this was a pretty good picture for our little camera just on the viewing terrace. The morning was a little overcast and drizzle would start every now and then, but overall really nice because it wasn't hot.

Dan and the kids.

Me and the kids. Megan wouldn't turn around because she had already taken one picture in front of it and she wanted to keep looking at it.

We kept getting comments on how Nytis had the best seat being carried around all day. We also got lots of comments on how cute he was. I'd have to agree.

There's a long walk you can go on and getting closer to the monument. I think it's called the Presidents walk or tour. We got some really up close pictures of the statues. It was really cool. This is as close as you can get unless you're a worker helping with the upkeep of the monument.

Overall, very cool to see and I would highly encourage everyone to visit it at least once in their life. After we left, the weather turned very wet and it poured most of the day. We really went at the perfect time. As for the overall out of state license plate game, by the time we got home we were only missing 4 plates, which were Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Kentucky. Yes, we even got Hawaii and Alaska. It was a lot of fun.