Mount Rushmore

I went out to Mt Rushmore on Monday and snapped a few pics, but the Universe was plotting against me as usual. First, some sort of maintenance was being done, so there's a contraption on Teddy Roosevelt's head in all my daylight pictures. Argh! Then I went in to watch one of the information films they show in the visitor center and promptly tore a seam in my pants as the pocket snagged on the edge of the arm rest. Double argh!

Anyway, I went out there again this evening (with new clothes!) to see the 9PM ceremony. They have a talk by a park ranger, an informal quiz and then they show a brief, very rousing and patriotic video. At the end of the video they play "America the Beautiful" as the faces in the hillside are lit from below; quite a nice sight. Then they play the national anthem, before all serving and ex-military are asked to come down to the stage. The flag is lowered and the park ranger walks around with a mic while all the soldiers lay their hand on the flag and state their name and branch. It's amazing to a Norwegian to see the profound respect accorded by the average American to the men and women of their armed forces.

I got to talking to the people on both sides of me... they were from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Very nice people and impressed that a guy from Norway would come all the way out there to witness the ceremony. I impressed even more during the informal presidential quiz (who was the shortest president? "Madison!" Who was the youngest president? - almost everybody shouted Kennedy, while I knew it was Teddy Roosevelt... etc, etc...)

The Black Hills are so purdy...


An arcade of the flags of all the states lead up the amphitheater and the mountain.


Ghostly apparitions...


It was really dark at the end, and my crappy camera didn't catch the nuances of the lighting - which actually cast the shadows of the heads as silhouettes on the surrounding cloud cover. Very pretty.


All Mt Rushmore pics here.