Monumental Road Trip...

Monumental Road Trip.... When I was a little girl I remember living near Mount Rushmore...and that's all I remember. But the summer of my Sophomore year, my dad wanted to take a 6-week family road trip... one last family vacation before my sister, Mona, graduated. So we packed up the camper and started on our mid-west family adventure... where we did a lot of sight seeing and visiting family. One of our stops was Mount Rushmore.... the thing I remember most about this visit was although it was a beautiful sight - (one you need to see)... it was at that time a dirt parking lot with a gift shop and it seemed in the middle of nowhere. The monument was beautiful... but there was nothing around except dirt and lots and lots and lots of trees. This was my last memory of Mount Rushmore....

Until... this trip. I don't know I guess I was expecting the same thing... but to my surprise (and I don't know why I didn't know this) it had become a real monument to these wonderful carving in a mountain. As we drove up I could see it was different... we weren't in a dirt parking area... there was a parking structure... then as we walked toward the monument... there was the Avenue of Flags which lead to the Grandview Terrace. The flags of every state line both sides of the walkway and below the flag was posted the date of when each became a state. It was a sight to see.... and back behind all the flags waving you could see Mount Rushmore... it was beautiful!!!

The view was... monumental to say the least. My cousin Gary took us on the Presidential Trail - which is a half-mile walking trail that offers spectacular views. It was unbelievable ... at every turn we saw a different angle of the mountain... some just of Washington with beautiful trees surrounding him.... others just of Lincoln... it was truly awe inspiring. My camera has a super-zoom feature and I could get so close... it took my breath away. If you can believe it... I took over 300 pictures of just Mount Rushmore... yeah 300... there were a few of Rainee and Steve mixed in there too... but I have sooooooooo many photos and each one is like a post card...

It was such a wonderful memory to share with my family... and can I just say... much more impressive and memorable that the dirt lot I remember as a high schooler. Steve and I have already decided we'll be going back... preferably on the 4th of July with their seriously fabulous fireworks going off all around Mount Rushmore... so it's on our to do list. But for now... I love looking at all our photos and seeing the beauty of this great carving on the side of a mountain....