Cathedral Spires
We drove the scenic loop today around the narrow, twisted mountain roads surrounding Mount Rushmore. We started the day in Custer where we caught up on our email since that was the first Internet access we’ve had for a couple of days. Then we drove out highway 16A towards Custer State park, where we purchased a state park entry pass for $15, then travelled up the Needles “highway” towards the Cathedral Spires.
The road has three very narrow tunnels. On two of them we had to fold in our mirrors to get the Tahoe through. The Cathedral Spires are the highlight of this section of the road. They are sharp crags of granite that jut up from the mountains. Some are very close to the road, and we stopped at almost every available pullout to photograph them.
We stopped at Sylvan Lake to eat our lunch. There were several vacant picnic tables, so we picked one to eat at. We had no sooner got our sandwiches out than we learned why the tables were vacant. We were swarmed by many yellow jacket wasps! So we quickly packed up our lunch and went back and ate it inside the Tahoe. We watched other groups stop to eat their lunch, saw them swat once or twice, then hurriedly pack up and retreat to their vehicles. Wasps five, tourists zero!
Mt. Rushmore from Norbeck Viewpoint
After lunch we drove on to view Mount Rushmore. However, having been there before, and since the parking fee was eleven dollars, we decided to skip the main tourist area. We drove around the Iron Mountain highway, which also has three narrow tunnels (though wider than those on the Needles highway). These tunnels are intentionally created to frame the Mount Rushmore sculpture, so that you can see it if you look back through the tunnel. We also stopped at the Norbeck Overlook (and learned that Peter Norbeck was an early governor of and state senator for South Dakota) where you can also see Mount Rushmore quite clearly, even though you are several miles away from it at this point.
We then stopped at the visitor information center and viewed the exhibits there before continuing on around the wildlife loop road. We saw no bison, but we did see several burros. We also saw more tourists than burros, including an entire tour bus that has stopped and was out petting them. The burros are very tame, and must be used to being fed, for as soon as you rolled down a window to photograph them they would come right up and almost stick their head in the window.
As we pulled back into our campsite at the end of the day, we saw a large tour bus ahead of us. We were curious about why a tour would come into the campsite, but soon found out. It was full of young teens, grade seven and eight, from a Montessori school in St. Paul, Minnesota. They are on a tour to start their school year and camping here, all fifty or so! The first thing they managed to do was break the water tap. Somehow they opened it too far and jammed it wide open. One of the teachers came by and wondered if I knew where the camp host was (there is none), so I offered to see if I could fix the faucet. However all I did was make it even worse, jammed it even farther open, and got thoroughly soaked. The teacher drove to the cave information center, and about half an hour later a repairman showed up. He couldn’t fix the tap either, but did have a tool to shut the water off.