Tuesday, September 14. Day 17 

This was a big day for photo ops!

The first stop of the day was the Crazy Horse Memorial which has been in the works for so long. The first and third shots show the work as it is today.

The shots of the remaining shots are of a Lakota hoop dancer. Her 45 minute show was very well planned and executed. She did a lot of teaching in an entertaining way. So good for sharing the native American perspective.

The three photos below are of museum displays.

Below is the artist's model of the finished product. They are currently working on the pointing finger.

The nature gate displays metal depictions of flora and fauna of all types and eras.

The Fighting Horse statue is near the great gate.

From Crazy Horse we moved to Custer Wildlife Loop. To get there we travel up, down, and around. Great scenery! Distant views were marred again today by smoke from wildfires from far away.

Traveling through the wildlife loop we drove through the Bison Center. It took awhile before we saw any.

We went some miles before we saw anything but landscape.

These guys were the first wildlife we spotted.

Prairie Dogs.

Patience paid off. 

We hit the bison bonanza!

We came to a spot on the road where bucketloads of bison were crossing the road in two directions. It was as if there was a changing of the guard and the groups were trading places.

This mama had to stop because baby wanted a snack.

Many were mamas and their single babies.

This seemed to be a family only because there was a mom and baby and a bull. However, this is toward the end of rutting season and he just might be interested in her. The bison females only mate with one bull a season while he may mate with several cows. I don't think he does anything after mating to help raise the baby.

I believe the bison in the next two are females. They all have horns.

The bison below is a bull.

Our wildlife adventures were not over with the last bison to cross the road. A bit further on the loop we encountered the following.

"Wild" mules. There may have been 10 or so all together. They wander onto the road and walk right up to the vehicles. If the window is down, they might stick their head in the window some say to give you a kiss. From my observation, it was to see if you had something to feed them. The third one up came so I could pet it and let me get a close up. Too cute.

Now you might think that HAS to be the end of the wildlife. But, you would be wrong. We weren't able to photo all that we saw. A reddish squirrel ran across the road in front of us, a bunny was sitting under a gait as we drove by, and Judy got a shot of part of a flock of wild turkeys. And to top it off, on our way back to the camper, we saw a couple of deer.

Now you might ask, what can top of a day of wildlife? The answer, the Mt. Rushmore night program. The park has a theater where all of the benches face a stage and the monument behind and above it. When we entered, the monument was dark. There was a rather stirring presentation by a park ranger followed by a wonderful film about the four presidents on the monument which ended with the faces being illuminated. At that point, all of the military vets and currently serving military were invited to the stage. When all were present, we sang the Star Spangled Banner. It was extremely moving. My thoughts were on Dave and Joe. The ranger then retired the colors and had some of those on stage fold the flag. One of those chosen was a woman. The whole thing was patriotic, emotional so worth the visit. Thank you, Judy, for encouraging the event.

The park ranger made a point of saying that this would be the only public recognition that many of these vets and military members would ever receive. Dave was lucky because he had many years he was recognized for his service by Oak Grove School in Libertyville. Before covid they held a wonderful Veterans Day celebration. It made the Vets and their families feel so special.

Thank a Vet any time you can.

We turned on our way out to view the monument over the two rows of state flags that line the walkway to the seating area.

This was quite a day!