Our first stop was actually at Walmart, where we loaded up our coolers for snacks and goodies. On the first night, by the time we finished enjoying a swim, we were all starving, however, Jordyn fell asleep before she could eat her dinner...so today we decided to have snacks at the ready :) First stop on the tour...Fort Hays movie set from Dances with Wolves.
Along with the movie set, this little "town" has a chuckwagon dinner theater, a gift shop, a tin shop, blacksmith shop, and a rope shop, to name a few.
I really enjoyed this stop...I love the movie, Dances With Wolves, so it was fun to check out some of the set. There were neat movie props, as well as this movie poster hall, filled with movies made in South Dakota.
This movie was filmed in the Broken Boot Gold Mine and was mentioned to us by our tour guide when we were there yesterday...so naturally, i had to take a photo :)
After seeing the buffalo in Wyoming, Jordyn just had to have her photo with this little guy!
Here are some of the shops in "Fort Hays"...
We decided to check out the rope shop, where Jordyn got to choose her own colors to weave into her very own rope!
Once she picked out the colors, they had to be woven in with the twine...
then she had to twist it around and around until the rope was ready to tie off...
then the Rope Maker taught Jordyn and Jake how to twirl the rope, cowboy style...
Looks like Jordyns a natural!
Next we headed over to Bear Country! Bear Country reminded me of Lion Country Safari when i was a kid...only instead of a lot of African animals, they were North American animals. For those of you not familiar with either place, the animals are in a giant park, and you drive your vehicle through the park to view the animals. They can actually walk right up to the cars, so its kind of exciting. There were reindeer, buffalo, sheep, cougars, wolves and naturally...bears!
After the driving tour, you park your vehicle and check out the rest of the park, which is set up like a zoo.
They had badgers, skunk, foxes, river otters and of course, more bears...
There must have been 30 bear cubs in this exhibit and they were adorable! Every time the PA system went off, they freaked out and went running for their little cave...then they would sneak back out to make sure the coast was clear! This was probably my favorite part of the whole park!
WARNING...on a hot day, metal sculptures are very HOT!
After Bear Country, we headed over to Mt Rushmore! As we were driving along, we had a "Smart Alec" GPS that we rented that shared a bunch of trivia with us as we cruised along the highway. It pointed out roadside attractions and kept us entertained on our 30 minute drive to the monument. As we rounded a corner, presidential music started playing and we all got fired up to get our first glimpse of this magnificent rock carving. As soon as Jordyn saw it she was soooo thrilled...she said, "i see it! i see the four heads! Did you see it?" and then she started clapping!
Its been about 35 years since i was here last, but i remember well, the Avenue of Flags...i thought it was so cool to see all the different state flags, and it was just as much fun to see them this time too. After getting ourselves some raspberry and vanilla swirl ice cream cones (yep, it was a raging 103 again), we walked the Avenue of Flags to take a closer look.
We all agreed that Mt Rushmore was awesome...and when later asked what his favorite part of the entire trip was, Jake, without hesitation, said, Mt. Rushmore!
Crazy Horse was next on our list, so we hopped back in the car and
enjoyed the air-conditioning over to the worlds largest sculpture in
progress. Now this is what it looked like when i saw it 35 years ago...
And this is what it looks like today...
It may not look much different, but an entire face has been carved, and also a ton of rock removed from the front of the sculpture.
Also new to the area are several gorgeous buildings, museums, and galleries.
There was a miniature model which was neat to look at...i had no idea the sculpture was going to be in the round, so it will truly be a magnificent sculpture when finished.
A storm rolled in and cooled things off a bit, so that made the viewing veranda quite pleasant.
This nature gate is new too, it represents 219 creatures found in western South Dakota, and its huge!
Before leaving, we picked up a souvenir rock from one of the blasts...it has all kinds of colors in it and is now sitting proudly on our shelf at home :) And speaking of blasts, they do two night blasts a year and the next one was scheduled for the tomorrow night, so we decided to come back tomorrow for the laser show and night blast!
In the meantime, we went back over to Mt Rushmore to watch the lighting ceremony of the monument...it was very touching, and soldiers, retired and still active were invited down on stage to join in the ceremony. They received standing ovations and it was awesome!
