Labor Day baby! It was a packed day and a good day.

We hit a number of places.

Crazy Horse Monument. Wind Cave National Park. Custer State Park. And maybe one more…

Our first stop of the day was going to be Wind Cave, but along the way we decided to be tourists and visit Crazy Horse. Some online reviews said it was pretty cool. So we went. Since it was cloudy and the face was partially covered, we got in for $11 instead of $22. What..a…deal…

The museum is actually pretty cool. There is all kinds of native american history, from headdresses to weapons to tipis.

It’s a tourist trap though. Once you pay to get in, you can pay again to take a bus to the top. And my guess is again to take the bus back down.

The Crazy Horse statue is another story altogether. I’m sure there are project management white papers based off this case.

As you can see, there is a bit of a face present. Then there’s a random hole through the rock. And bottom right of the rock, you can see a sketch. I would estimate the carving to be about 10% complete. Amazingly enough, they have been working on this project for SIXTY years! In that time they have managed to carve the face, but they still have a set of feathers (headdress), and entire outstretched arm, another arm, and the front of a horse to carve.

Based on the future state picture and current status, I would guess humans will live on Mars before this thing is finished. I’d say, give or take, another 250 years?

That said, the story of Crazy Horse is very interesting. Crazy Horse is not a horse. He is a person. He did ride a horse. But don’t get confused about that.

Specifically, Crazy Horse was a native american that was famous for his brave feats in battle (like riding into a crowd, jumping off his horse, and shooting at his enemies) as well as his genuine care and concern for his people. He was supposedly a quiet man in every day life, but a fierce leader in battle.

His story is both amazing and tragic. He fought to protect the land rights entreated to his people and the Lakota way of life while the government of the United States was trying to take them away. He also led the successful war party against General Custer (who Custer State Park is named for) in the Battle of Little Bighorn (of which the mountains where Cloud Peak is located are named for). Brave. Amazing.

He also went through a lot of great difficulty in his life and, spoiler alert, was eventually murdered by soldiers while trying to escape a trap that sought to imprison him under the pretense of treaty talks. Tragic.

Because of his bravery and love for the Lakota people, Crazy Horse was chosen as the figure that would be enshrined in a monument to represent and champion all Native American past/present/future.

If you are interested, you can read all you’ll ever want about the history of Crazy Horse on wikipedia. Also, the podcast History on Fire has a Crazy Horse series that was recently published.

Onward to Wind Cave National Park.

Unfortunately, the only way to really see Wind Cave is to take a tour, and we decided not to wait around to do that. So I have a picture of the sign, and I have this picture of me pointing to some prairie dogs. Enjoy!

Wind Cave is connected via road to Custer State Park, in which Harney Peak is also located. Custer is amazing. The southern part of the park is rolling hills, prairies, wildflowers, and all kinds of animals.

At one point, this guy came trotting down the center of the road and right by us.

We drove for about an hour through the park and made some stops along the way, but didn’t do any hiking. Thats my only regret – I wish we had. Next time, the Prairie Trail.

We headed back to Sylvan Lake to hike the Sunday Gulch trail, even though it was Monday. The trail is about 4 miles long and drops from the lake level down into a gulch. There are a lot of massive boulders early in the loop, and then a steep descent and then ascent with views of the surrounding Black Hills.

We did a little rock climbing to get to a higher elevation for pictures. There were taller things to get on top of and I could have done it, but wisdom prevailed and we decided going to eat dinner and watch football was better than going to the hospital.

We passed the lake again and took some more pictures. Its one of the coolest lakes ever, with tons of big boulders that obscure portions from view.

With our Labor Day winding down, we planned to return to Rapid City and get dinner at a place we had heard good things about called Thirsty’s. As we drove our, we continued our banter about Mount Rushmore.

Throughout the trip, we frequently joked with people we passed on trails about how far it was to Rushmore. They always laughed. We talked repeatedly about leaving the amazing stuff we were seeing to go back to the Rushmore tourist trap. We spoke of our first sight of Rushmore from the road as the defining moment in our lives. We joked that we were going to go back, and we were going to give them our $11 happily and ask if we could pay double. We laughed about how funny it would be if we actually went.

As we drove down from Custer, we passed the signs for Rushmore. LETS GO!

And we did. We paid our $11. Its Labor Day!

Besides, who can pass on visiting one of America’s greatest natural wonders. It’s amazing what erosion can do!

Having reached the pinnacle of life, I expect its all downhill from here. Surely everything else I do will be disappointing from here on out.

Actually, Rushmore was pretty cool up close, if only to get these pictures. If you are there, you have to go see it. Why wouldn’t you?

You also have to go to Thirsty’s. Burgers were solid, fries were fresh and hand-cut, and the beer selection was solid. Nice people, and even though nobody in the Dakotas seems to watch college football, they turned on the Ole Miss vs FSU game for us.

We packed up that night and flew home Tuesday AM. One funny thing… as we approached Minneapolis on the flight home we had a familiar experience. We glided down towards the runway. We got within a few thousand feet. And suddenly we accelerated and gained altitude. High winds. Airport flipped. Again.

Only one pass to get it right this time though, and we made our connection with about 20 minutes to spare (because it was delayed 16 minutes).

Oh well, whats a trip… or life for that matter… without a little adventure?