We got an email from readers Ted & Donna telling us that they took the Mt. Rushmore Tour when they were here. So we looked into it.
It's not something we would normally do, because it's about $80 a person with tax. But we ran it through the "value meter" and we determined it was worth it to knock several touristy things out in one day without having to do the 100-plus miles of driving ourselves.
Itinerary
- Meet at the Fort Hays Chuckwagon/"Dances With Wolves" movie set location at 7:30 a.m.
- Pick up tickets and wander around the "Dances With Wolves" movie set.
- Have and all-you-can-eat breakfast at the chuckwagon.
- Board the tour bus at 9:00 a.m for an all-day narrated tour.
- Drive through the town of Keystone and go to Mount Rushmore and spend an hour.
- Take the famous Iron Mountain Road going through tunnels, over "pigtail" bridges, and down switchbacks to Custer State Park.
- Drive through Custer State Park and stop for lunch at the Game Lodge (price of lunch not included).
- Drive the famous Needles Highway up into the most scenic area of the Black Hills. Go through tunnels, view Cathedral Spires, Eye of the Needle formation, and more.
- Stop at Sylvan Lake, the "crown jewel" of Custer State Park.
- Drive through the town of Custer.
- Go to the Crazy Horse Memorial and spend an hour
- Drive through the town of Hill City.
- Return to Fort Hays by 5:30.
- Wander around the "Dances With Wolves" movie set and watch craftsmen in the various workshops.
- Have a chuckwagon dinner at 6:30.
- Watch the hour long Fort Hays Wranglers music and comedy show at 7:30.
They also have tour that is the exact same itinerary without the meals (i.e. the breakfast and the chuckwagon dinner/after-dinner-show are not included).
So, not knowing how long it takes to get around, we gave ourselves 45 minutes to get to Fort Hays. Fort Hays isn't really a town, it's just what they call the location of the a place south of Rapid City on Hwy 16 where the "Fort Hays" of the "Dances With Wolves" film set is located. The set was moved here from the original location on a private ranch several years ago.
It only took us a half hour to get there from our campground and we were there way too early. We arrived about 7:15 and we would have been fine arriving around 8:15 - 8:30.
Fort Hays Chuckwagon/Dances With Wolves Movie Set
We were able to get our tickets (which we reserved online) at the "Headquarters" .....
and then had plenty of time to wander around the movie set and gift shop (which is what they hope you will do).
Our early arrival cost me a cowboy hat for Linda, but it was reasonable and she looks good in it. :)
There is a working Tin Shop, Blacksmith Shop, Rope Shop, and more.
The movie set and all the shops are open to the public and there is no admission fee.
We wandered into the Chuckwagon for our breakfast.
If you just come in off the street, you can get all-you-can-eat pancakes for 99 cents. :) Our breakfast included pancakes, sausage links, biscuits & gravy and drinks. I was disappointed that there were no eggs, and it wasn't exactly the all-you-can-eat breakfast I was expecting, but it was fine.
After breakfast, we talked with Ken & Janet Ragsdale until it was time to board our bus. Ken & Janet have been full-timing for fifteen years and for the last four years they have worked here at Fort Hays as doing photography during the summer. Check out their website "Snapshots By Ken Ragsdale".
They travel in a toyhauler fifth wheel and have a photo studio in the "garage". They take photos of folks on the tours at Mt. Rushmore and then the photos are available for purchase in the afternoon in their little photo shop when the tour is complete. They work seven days a week, but they earn enough in the summer to let them play the rest of the year.
If you stop at Fort Hays, look for Ken in his bowler hat and check out their photo shop. :)
Finally, it was time to board the bus. I'd say there were about 40 of us. It was an older bus, but clean and comfortable. Some of the newer buses are too wide to get through some of the area tunnels. :)
Mt. Rushmore
We drove through the small town of Keystone, once a gold mining town and now a tourist town. We caught glimpses of the famous carvings as we went through the small village. On the other side of town, we entered the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial.
This was our first good look through the tinted bus window as we approached the parking area.
There is no admission fee to visit the memorial, but they do charge an $11 parking fee. The parking fee is good for the calendar year. America The Beautiful Senior and Access passes don't cover the parking fee.
Since I was a kid, I've heard lots of mixed opinions about Mt. Rushmore. I've heard several people say they were disappointed or that they thought they would be able to get closer. Therefore, we had our expectations rather low.
From the time we stepped off the bus, I had a much more positive reaction than I thought I would.
The above photo was pretty much a naked eye view. The following photo of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, and Lincoln is zoomed from that same spot.
This shot is from the Grand View Terrace, the main viewing area.
That's also where Ken took photos of us. Of course, this is a picture of a picture and I didn't take time to make sure the lighting was good so don't hold that against Ken. :)
Each head is about 60 feet tall, so the carving is designed to be viewed from long distances. Binoculars are certainly a good idea to see the amazing detail. However, you can certainly get closer by walking the one mile Presidential Trail loop.
This is about as close as you can get, ....
but you can see that the angle isn't all that great.
Parts of the trails were closed during today's visit due to some type of tree spraying. But we only had an hour, so we went back to the museum located under the Grand View Terrace.
Here's a shot of Linda in her cowboy hat on the stairs leading down to the museum. :)
We didn't have time to watch the movie, but the exhibits answered a lot of my questions. I hadn't ever studied Mt. Rushmore, so I was curious about the inspiration, the selection of the mountain, the name of the memorial, the choice of presidents, and more.
The museum exhibits answered almost all my questions in the short time we were there.
Mt. Rushmore was actually the brainchild of Doane Robinson, the State Historian for South Dakota. But the idea was not as noble as the result. He simply wanted a large carving in the Black Hills to attract tourists to his state from all over the country. He contacted the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, who was working on Stone Mountain in Georgia.
Borglum came and accepted the challenge, but he required that the sculpture have a more national significance than Robinson had first envisioned. Borglum suveyed the area and ultimately chose the mountain largely based on the best lighting during most of year and the composition of the mountain.
He felt the four presidents chosen (the project started in 1927) best represented the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States during its first 150 years.
The name Mt. Rushmore is simply a carry-over. The mountain was named in 1885 after a New York City lawyer who had come to the area on business. So the memorial is simply named for the mountain where the carving is located.
Gutzon Borglum's original plans were to carve the presidents down to their waists. But after the faces were finished and he died in 1941, the project was considered complete.
It was interesting to hear the stories of some of the 400 workers. They were terrified when they first started, but after they got into the routine, they considered it "just a job". They had no idea of the significance of the project at the time. Fortunately, no one died during the carving.
For more details, visit the Mt. Rushmore website or, better yet, come see it for yourself and go through the museum to see how the project developed, the controversies, and the techniques used.
We enjoyed our time there and we may go back, especially for the night program when they light up the mountain.
Iron Mountain Road
Between Mt. Rushmore and one entrance of Custer State Park is the Iron Mountain Road which is part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic By-way.
This road was designed as a connector road, but conservationist, senator, and governer, Peter Norbeck wanted to be sure the road didn't destroy any more of the natural environment than necessary. He also wanted it to be a slow trek. Therefore, the road has switchbacks, hairpin turns, tunnels, and "pig-tail" bridges (they loop around themselves like a pig's curly tail). Here's an old photo from above.
Another really cool feature of the road is that the three tunnels frame Mt. Rushmore as you drive through each one of them heading toward the memorial. Our bus driver/tour guide, Dan, let us off the bus to get photos after we passed through going in the opposite direction.
You certainly don't have to go to the Mt. Rushmore Memorial to see the mountain - there are numerous vantage points.
Once beyond all the tunnels and switchbacks and curves, Iron Mountain Road passes by the Spokane Creek Campground where we are parked. We snapped a quick shot of our rig as we passed by.
Custer State Park
About a mile farther, we entered a back entrance to Custer State Park. Custer State Park is the premier park in the South Dakota State Parks system and it is one of the finest state parks anywhere in the country. It's Wildlife Drive is a major attraction for visitors to the area.
Now, this tour doesn't go on the Wildlife Drive where the main herds can be seen, but we certainly got our share of looks at Bison.
They were a lot closer than that last photo shows.
As we passed through the park, we stopped at the State Game Lodge (Calvin Coolidge's summer "White House" in 1927) for lunch. That was not included in our tour, so you could choose to skip lunch, have the buffet, or order off the menu. It's a bit pricey and we were still feeling the effects of breakfast, so Linda & I decided to split a $13 buffalo burger.
We sat with a couple from St. Louis, Chuck & Florence, and had a great time chatting with them. Unfortunately, the service was a bit slow, and we didn't have any time after lunch to look around.
Needles Highway
Back on the bus, we continued through the massive park. The Needles Highway is also part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic By-way and the most scenic part is within the park boundaries. This was a road Peter Norbeck was told was impossible to build, but he got it done.
This road also includes tunnels and hairpin turns as it climbs up to over 6,000 feet through the granite outcroppings and the tall, slender rock formations known as "needles". Unfortunately, it clouded up and started to rain as we got to the most scenic part.
Still, we were able to get shots of the Cathedral Spires.
The most exciting part was squeezing through the narrowest of the area tunnels. It's only 8' 4" wide. That's 100 inches. RVs are either 96 inches wide or 102 inches wide. It's a good idea to know your width and don't forget to measure awnings and anything else that might be sticking out. :)
Here's an old photo of the bus just like we were on today coming through the last tunnel.
Of course, height may be the issue. Most of the tunnel clearances range from 10' 7" to 12' 9" with one large tunnel exception coming into Keystone. Check out the chart below.
The first three listed are on Iron Mountain Road. The last three are on Needles Highway. The one in the middle is a two-lane tunnel and no problem.
Now you can get to all areas of Custer State Park and all the other attractions with a large RV. It just takes some planning and longer routes.
With the rain, and fewer places to pull off, we weren't able to get many pictures of the scenery, but we'll certainly be back through the area over the next several days.
At the apex of the Needles Highway, is the beautiful Sylvan Lake. It's a gorgeous, trout-filled lake with rocks in and around the lake. Unfortunately, not only was it raining harder, but we got about an inch of hail during our stop there. A few bad pictures wasn't worth getting pounded.
While we waited on the bus and hoped for the weather to clear out, we talked to our fellow tourist, Sucheta. Sucheta was born in India but moved to Atlanta when she was 17. After a stint in the corporate world of investments, she is now following her dream.
She is a chef and freelance travel writer and has a website called "Go .. Eat .. Give". It's about exploring the world and learning about other cultures through food and community service. At her young age, she has been to 35 countries. We exchanged cards and who knows, perhaps we can assist each other some day.
Well, the rain and hail continued, so we gave up on Sylvan Lake. But we'll definitely be back.
Crazy Horse Memorial
From Sylvan Lake, rather than continuing down Needles Highway to Hill City, we turned off and dropped down into the town of Custer. We drove through town and eventually came to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is between Custer and Hill City.
Cheif Standing Bear of the Lakota Tribe contacted sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who had worked under Borglum at Mt. Rushmore, about carving a mountain so that "the White Man would know that the Red Man has great heroes also". The land is owned by the Crazy Horse Horse Memorial Foundation and its charter includes making the campus an educational and cultural center for all North American Indiana, in addition to continuing the progress on the world's largest sculpture.
The project was dedicated in 1948 and Korczak started work. He dedicated his life to the Crazy Horse Monument and died in 1982. He refused any type of government funds and funding, as well as weather, make the project a slow process.
Upon his death, he left it up to his wife and ten children. He told them they could walk away if they wished, but most of his children took up the challenge and are continuing along with their mother.
At the memorial, we watched the twenty-minute movie and took a look at the distant mountain when the rain stopped.
For a little perspective, all four heads of the presidents on Rushmore would fit on the head of Crazy Horse.
The face is carved, but there is so much work to be done.
It's supposed to look like this when completed.
Work is now being done on the horse. Tons and tons of rock have been blasted off the mountain, but it's hard for visitors to see progress. It certainly won't be completed in our lifetime, and I'm not sure it will be completed in the lifetimes of the sculptor's great grandchildren. Like Mt. Rushmore, "completion" may be something much different than the original plan.
I hope that they continue to develop the educational and cultural aspects of the overall plan. Personally, I think that self-funded success and pride in the achievements of those that pass through will ultimately lead to the fulfillment of the dream of Korczak and Chief Standing Bear.
We walked through the cultural center and admired the Indiana art. With the movie, viewing the mountain, and walking through, our hour went by quickly and it was time to board the bus.
Will we go back to Crazy Horse. Mmm, I doubt it. However, they have something called a Volksmarch hike up to the face of the sculpture each year and it just so happens that we will still be here for this year's event (June 2 & 3). It's the only time the public can hike up the mountain, so we might just have to do that. :)
Fort Hays Chuckwagon & Show
We arrived back at the Fort Hays location by 5:30. That gave everyone an hour to walk through the movie set and watch the craftsmen make tin plates, rope, knives, etc. Folks on the tour could pick out their photos with Ken & Janet. Lots of opportunity to shop. :)
We had assigned seats for dinner based on when we bought our tickets. Of course, it included all the people that had made reservations for dinner, not just those on the tour bus. So we didn't sit with anyone we had met earlier.
Dinner was beef brisket with BBQ sauce or a chicken breast. It also included baked beans, applesauce, a baked potato, a biscuit, a piece of spice cake, and drinks (lemonade, coffee, or tea).
We were sent up by table row (just like an RV rally) and servers dished out our food onto our tin plates. We grabbed tin cups of lemonade and went back to our table. The food was simple but plentiful. There wasn't anything amazing about the meal, but it was good.
After we all followed instructions in helping to get the dishes cleared off the rows of tables, the Fort Hays Wranglers (also our food servers) came out on stage.
They started about 7:30.
They were a great group of musicians and the voices pretty good. The comedy was typically hokey, but we still laughed and had fun.
The show lasted an hour and had a great variety of cowboy songs, country, classis rock, gospel, and patriotic. They even squeezed in a polka and a swing. :)
The show was over around 8:30 and we got to the Jeep just before dark. By 9:00 we were home.
Well, the weather wasn't the best for our tour, but we still had a great day. Was the tour worth it? Linda said it was. I would have to agree with her, but it was a closer call for me. No surprise there. :)
It certainly gave us a great one-day overview and a "lay of the land". As planned, we knocked out three touristy things - Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Chuckwagon Diner Show - in one day and didn't have to do the 110 miles of driving. Was it worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? No, but it served its purpose this time. :)
Thanks for the details. We'll be following what you did instead of driving it. It's more relaxing with others driving the roads.
Posted by: Dee Walter | Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 04:21 PM
Wonderful evaluation!!! and Linda does look GREAT in the hat!
Posted by: Cheryl B. | Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 04:31 PM
We missed Needles and Iron Mountain. However, we did get to Deadwood and Spearfish Canyon. We visited the Roughlock Falls and the Bridal Falls. Looks like you could even do some dry camping there at the Falls. I enclosed my journal I made when we took our trip. I never made one before and it is a bit rough. But there may be some information you could find useful while you are out there. So wish we were back out there. It was so breathtaking! Hope you continue to have a awesome time!
Posted by: Becky Robbins | Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 08:15 PM
Well, a thought about the picture of the tour buss in the 8'4" wide tunnel/cut on the Norbeck Senic Bi-way. It looks like it has 2" or 3" side clearance. What if the bus stalled there? No space for the door to open. I guess that the back window would be the way out. My wife and I do not like restricted or confined spaces so we would have been having a hard time with that. How did you feel about it?
Posted by: David Mason | Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 09:25 PM