Custer State Park and Mt. Rushmore

 

Day 10, Custer State Park and Mt. Rushmore.

Crossing the flatlands of Nebraska into South Dakota seemed to go effortlessly.  There were some rolling hills and very small towns that always seem to have a Best Western, a Hardees and a McDonald’s.  Also, we’ve seen a lot of Sinclair gas stations.  I thought they were as extict as the dinosaur they feature in their logo.  I do remember them in my childhood.  Especially the one off the Bruckner Expressway near the White Castle, which is another establishment we’ve seen a bit of so far heading west.

    

Entering Custer State Park, one passes over rolling prairie topography.  Before long, more trees and rock formations appear.  While I’ve been to quite a few parks in the west, this one is not only beautiful, but also more serene than the others, aside from Glacier National Park.  It didn’t feel touristy.  Even Mt. Rushmore, while having its share of visitors, wasn’t too crowded. 

We stopped at the entry station to get a map and pay our fee, at which point the woman clad in Park Service attire proceeded to tell me the fastest way to get to Sylvan Lake Lodge, where we were staying.  At first, that seemed to make sense to me, but then as I drove out, I realized that I wasn’t in a hurry and I identified the very curvy line on the map as the best way to go.  We could also see three tunnels identified on that route, and I know how Parker had told me he loves tunnels earlier in the trip as we went through the long tunnels on Route 76 in Pennsylvania, through the Alleghenies.  The longer route was to be Needles Highway, named for one of the formations of rocks prominently seen from most of the road’s wonderful twists and turns.

  

    

The tunnels themselves were very unlike the ones we enjoyed in the east.  These were carved out of rock, and thus were not even large enough to fit an RV through them, thankfully.  I was struck by just how uncrowded this highway was on a Friday preceeding the fourth of July.  Eventually, we made our way to Sylvan Lake.  I had seen it on the Custer Resorts website, but hadn’t expected it to look as breathtaking as it did there.  In fact, it was even more beautiful, since one could more around and see the mammoth rocks that reflected in the calm lake from different angles.  Realizing we’d be back, we took a quick drive around the lake, and headed to the lodge. 

    

Frank Lloyd Wright designed Sylvan Lake Lodge.  The lobby and sitting area was graced with wall decorations of stuffed bison heads, mountain goats, deer, moose, and some snarling wild boar.  There was also a baby grand piano.  Sylvan Lake Lodge definitely had a “lodge” feel.  Apparently, this motif is a great setting for family reunions and wedding rehearsals and receptions, as the “greeting board” featured three families and one wedding rehearsal dinner that night.  It turned out that these events got in the way of our enjoying the serenity of the slate terrace overlooking the woods as a dinnertime setting, as there was much too much commotion, and we moved inside.  After dinner, people were partying throughout the facility, and a young guy who didn’t look the part of a lounge type piano player was entertaining himself and those in his party with some 40s tunes.

After we got settled in our spacious room with two queen beds on opposite sides of the room and a sofa-bed in the middle, we took the drive to Mt. Rushmore, which we ended up repeating twice over the next 48 hours, finding better routes and different reasons to go back each time.  I asked the boys if they thought what they were going to see would be larger or smaller than they had perceived it would be.  While they gave different answers (not unlike what happens when I give them choices for what to do for dinner, or what to do at a particular time), my feeling was that the four presidents would be smaller than I had always envisioned   In fact, while the first time we saw them was from the parking lot they did seem smaller than they had appeared in pictures I had seen, they grew much larger as we traversed the walk by the columns displaying the flags of the 50 states toward the cliff where these incredible carvings—or more appropriately—blastings, were..

    

The next day we came back by what looked like the scenic route on the map from the east instead of the west, and by far that was THE way to come upon Mt. Rushmore.  Austin excitedly first spotted the sculpture about 13 miles away on one of the winding roads, and then as one got closer, the road designers found awesome ways to feature a view of the monument.  On some of the twists, one could see them through clearings, but most amazingly, two of the tunnels were planned so that the walls of the tunnel framed the sculpture on the distant mountain.   As we passed through one of the tunnels, which was typically just a hair wider than our car and about twenty yards long or so, it really was a breathtaking and moving experience.

We also went back that evening to see the faces lit up in their nightly ceremony, which was fair entertainment, but just not that exciting.  It was gratifying, however, to see that during the pre-lighting patriotic movie they showed before the lighting, that in many instances when they showed some historic or beautiful site we can find in America, Austin and Parker and I were able to say to each other and ourselves that we had seen most of them… The Liberty Bell, The Gateway Arch, all the monuments in Washington, DC, Niagara Falls… and most all of them in the last year.

Before the lighting we had dinner at the State Game Lodge, which was the Summer White House to President Coolidge.  The menu and food were mouthwatering, with steaks—beef and buffalo, trout, deer, and more traditional fare, all with interesting vegetables and atop something that sounded great.  It couldn’t even be tarnished by the awful service provided by the young waitress named Vanessa, who was working for just the summer there, and while sweet and with good intentions, had no business being a server.  Most of the workers in these places are college students.  In fact, Barb and I had worked at The Grand Canyon one summer as a way to escape the heat of Tucson between semesters in 1980.  It was a fantastic time.  We were in our “honeymoon” stage and while we only made about $3.50 an hour with about a buck an hour subtracted for our room, we were able to save quite a bit and find ways to enjoy our three days off a week, which somehow we managed to coordinate, by finding some of the most remote spots in the Canyon.  I suppose most of the workers at Custer, including Vanessa, had more important agendas than getting Austin’s steak back to the table within fifteen minutes after it was brought back to the kitchen to take it from steak tartare to something more resembling medium-rare.  When it did finally arrive back at the table, it was a completely new steak with ANOTHER mound of onion strings placed heaped on top of it.  The first one was so massive, I had to ask for a large plate on which to find a home for the things so that Austin could see his steak.  Now we had a second mound.  All fried up, and no place to go.  I had an amazing tenderloin, while I had convinced Parker to forego the salmon he could have gotten anywhere and try the cornbread stuffed quail (he loves cornbread).  While he didn’t hate it, he didn’t love it either, but I was glad to see he would at least try something like that, especially at a place called The State Game Lodge. (I won’t mention the bribe and the lecture).   We also tried some buffalo ribs in an amazing sauce and trout over polenta for appetizers.

I had wished someone would have told me how great the food was here and how mediocre it was to have been at the Lakota Dining Room at our Sylvan Lake Lodge ahead of time.  At least the Lakota was right there and enabled us to relax a bit at the lake before the sun went down.  And yes, I found a laundromat by the lake.  No better place on the planet to spend time waiting for long wash and dry cycles than Sylvan Lake.

My favorite incident:  At Mt Rushmore, we were thirsty as it was quite warm out.  I had seen someone with what I thought was a cold coffee drink. When I asked the guy at the counter if they had a cold coffee drink, he looked at me with some puzzled look, and said “Caffey, Jes” and began to walk toward the hot pots of coffee… I stopped him and indicated that I was interested in something cold, just then noticing a granita maker, and pointing it out to him… saying “that cold coffee drink, granita, over there”, at which point he again went walking toward the hot pot of coffee, saying “Jes, Caffey”.  Finally one of the girls working next to him got wind and told me there was no more granita.  We ordered two smoothies, which came to $5.51.  As I handed the guy a 10, I told him to hold on as I searched for a penny, so of course I wouldn’t have to get back four singles and bunch of change.  He waved me off.  Again, I said, “here, take the penny”.  He waves me off again.  I thought of course he was rounding off, so I throw the penny in the “leave a penny-take a penny” cup.   What I got back were four singles, a four dimes, and four pennies.  ---  America.  Only in a place where patriotism is the prevailing theme can we come across someone who is waiting on thousands of people an hour, and he can’t speak English and doesn’t know our currency.  There’s something wrong about that.  There’s also something right about it.

June 28, 2002

Today, we went to Custer, SD. When we got to South Dakota, the land was flat and boring. After a while, there was beautiful terrain and rocks. We went through a park, where we discovered some Buffalo/Bison. After an hour or so, we came to Custer. The rocks were really nice with the layers of them. We saw even more buffalo there. We stayed at the Sylvan Lake Lodge, which was near Sylvan Lake. That afternoon, we went to Mt. Rushmore. For $8.00, I think that is a bargain for a year! It was very pretty the way it was carved, nice and smooth. I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing it! That night, we went to a path next to the lake, to pass the time for our laundry to be done. We went back to the hotel, and I realized there was no AC, only a little fan.

~Parker

Day 10 -- Austin

6-28-02

We’re in South Dakota now. We went to Custer State Park. It was a forest with a bunch of animals. And I had to admit, the scenery was awesome. We were in a different hotel — for one thing, you had to lock it yourself. So if you didn’t lock it yet and you went outside the room, you can still go back in. Never mind that, I liked the forest. It was pretty nice. (But one thing: there was a forest fire, so that’s bad!) We actually saw Mt. Rushmore. We only saw it for a little while, though. The carvings were really good! You wouldn’t be able to believe it. They actually looked like people in stone!

Day 11 -- Austin	6-29-02
We saw Mt. Rushmore again today. We took the Presidential Trail, but it wasn’t that much to see. There was a model of the mountain, and facts about the presidents on the mountain, but that’s pretty much it. Oh well. We actually saw it again tonight and there was a movie about America and how it changed throughout 150 years — from 1776 to 1926. (Right now, it is 226 years old, and will be 227 years old in 5 days!) Anyway, there were changes within 150 years, such as the right for women to vote, WWI, and more. After the movie, Mt. Rushmore was lit up so everybody can see it. When we left Mt. Rushmore, we saw a lot of stars when we were watching them. There were a WHOLE lot of them. More than you can imagine. I never thought that there would be a whole lot!
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