Something you only do once
Written: Sep 04 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nothing like it, really cool to see
Cons: A one time kind of thing
The Bottom Line: This is a great place to visit but once you've been there for a few hours you've done everything there is to do.
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| norwaynick's Full Review: Mt. Rushmore |
I visited Mt. Rushmore a few years ago as the highlight to my trip to South Dakota and Colorado. I arrived in Denver and stayed there before driving up to Rapid City. When I got to Rapid City I went to Mt. Rushmore right away. It was truly amazing but not something that I would do again. I’m not unpatriotic but it is the kind of thing you see and it’s done.
I found that it was 20 to 30 minutes from Rapid City and the route is very scenic. There are many places to stop and take in the glorious views (and photograph it). When you are approaching it you drive up the mountainside and you look around for it but you can’t find it. Then you round a bend and all of a sudden you start to see the faces on the mountain. It is beautiful and just springs up on you.
When I drove up the free parking was already gone so I went and purchased the pass for $8. This is expensive but it does allow you to return to the park again without having to repay. Once I had parked I was right next to the entrance and the informative information center. It was very nicely set up and told you everything you could have wondered about the monument. As usual there were also different films running that were very nicely set up and showed the history of mountain.
As you walk on there is a large gift shop on the left that has anything and everything you could have ever wanted from Mt. Rushmore. On the other side is a large place for food. For a quick snack there is an ice cream parlor and for a whole meal they have a cafeteria that has a large selection at a very low price. They also have a program where they bring over people from all different countries so the staff all have their country of origin on their name tags. Of course they all speak very good English.
Now for the real thing. When you continue up the walk way you can see Mt. Rushmore, which personally looked smaller than I imagined, there are flags from all the states of the Union and plaques with the dates of when they joined.
The men on the mountain are our first President George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Each face is about 60 feet high but since they are 400 or 500 feet up they look smaller than you would expect.
There is a large auditorium in front of the faces which is nice. If you stick around until 9 PM then you can see a show which is put on a large screen on the stage. I did wait but unfortunately they had “technical difficulties” so our show started 15 minutes late. Now this wouldn’t be that big of a deal if it wasn’t for the fact that fog was rolling in. When we finally got to the part where they light up the mountain you couldn’t see it at all. If there hadn’t been that 15 minute delay then I would have seen the lights on the faces which I hear is a great sight.
If you want to get closer to the faces then you can take on of the many trails around the base. These are all nice walks and the path ways are constructed very well. Along the way there are plaques that talk about each president and provide more interesting information.
After all this you have pretty much seen all there is to see of Mt. Rushmore. It is something that is really fun to see once but you can pretty much do everything there is to do in a few hours and then there is really no point in going out of your way to see it again. I still think that it will be the highlight of your trip to South Dakota and I hope you visit!
Recommended:
Yes
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norwaynick
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Location: NJ, USA
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