Day 24: South Dakota to Wyoming

Wednesday, April 29

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Through all of the various itineraries we planned for our return trip, only one attraction managed to stay fixed in our plans, and that was Mount Rushmore. Sandy’s seen it a few times before, but Zahid had never gone, and it was still at the top of his wish list.

Mount Rushmore

So Wednesday morning after checking out, we went straight to Mount Rushmore. It was a stunning sight—Zahid was gaping from the moment we saw the sculptures from the road. We paid the entrance fee of $10, and went in to take a closer look and get some photos. While Sandy went into the souvenir shop, Zahid set up his tripod and took photos from a variety of angles. After looking at the exhibits in the visitor’s center, we made a donation to the upkeep of the monument and left. You’ve seen hundreds of pictures of Mount Rushmore, and the one we’re posting here won’t be any different. See it in person if you can—it’s really an awesome sight.

Crazy Horse Memorial

We drove from there through Custer to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is still being constructed. Having been in progress since 1948, it’s in no danger of rapid completion, but after reading about it at the Visitor’s Center (cost of admission: $10/person or $27/car), we learned why. First of all, it’s a massive undertaking—when complete, it will be an order of magnitude bigger than Mount Rushmore. Not only is the monument planned to be larger, but the area around it is slated to be an university, a medical training center, as well as a museum. Second, it’s being built exclusively with private funds—the builders refuse to take Federal or State monies for it. The monument is being constructed by seven of the children of the original designer and sculptor. We recommend holding off on visiting this monument, at least for a while—once it’s complete (which may or may not be within our lifetime), it will be a breathtaking sight.

The dream and the reality: The model for the

Crazy Horse Memorial is in the foreground,

with the actual sculpture in the background.

Upon leaving Crazy Horse, we decided against driving through Deadwood (where Wild Bill Hickok was killed while playing cards) or to the Mammoth Site, one of the premier sites for research into prehistoric animals, including mammoths, bears, and American lions. Instead, we took US-385 through Wind Cave National Park, where we saw our first buffalo of the trip. We then headed into Wyoming along US-18.

Wyoming and the Plains Hotel Fiasco

While looking up information on our route in Google Maps, we got more weird results, this time from the My Location feature, which insisted we were in Colorado when we clearly weren’t. Since this was the second weirdness we’d encountered this week, we switched to Microsoft Live Search for the Blackberry. As it turns out, that program doesn’t have a feature analogous to “My Location” at all, but it does most of the other things that Google Maps does and integrates better with the Blackberry address book. So right now, we’re testing out both and hoping the quirks in either will be resolved soon.

Scenery in Wyoming was pretty lackluster, and we pushed to get to Cheyenne before the electrical storm we were driving through got worse. Along the way, we tried our luck with Priceline, but our bid was not accepted, and this time, Priceline did not give us a second chance. Instead, we booked a room at retail value at the only hotel Priceline ranked with three stars, the Plains Hotel. We read some good stuff about the renovation of this 1910s-era hotel, and it looked like a nice place once we got there. We checked in and, when we got to our room, immediately ordered room service from The Capitol Grille. Shortly afterward, though, we realized that the room had not been thoroughly cleaned. (We are declining to give details—suffice it to say, eww.) We called the front desk, and they sent William up with keys to a new room. While we were moving our things, William told us some stories about the hotel. Apparently, a couple of the rooms are thought to be haunted. He also told us why the elevator at the hotel was built so small—to discourage patrons from bringing their horses to their rooms! Not sure if those stories are true, but they made for an entertaining few minutes.

In the new room, the sink didn’t work (the drain was stuck in a closed position). With William’s help, we jury-rigged the sink to work, but by that time, we weren’t exactly brimming with confidence about the hotel. 

On a more positive note, the food arrived shortly after we called down to tell the restaurant about the room switch. It was an excellent meal, particularly the bison meatloaf with chipotle ketchup, and we highly recommend The Capitol Grille, but not the hotel itself.