Crazy Horse Memorial

We had a full first day planned... on top of our 10 hour drive, the Corn Palace, and our Wall Drug adventure, we rolled into Rapid City, SD early evening and hit the road again to check out the Badlands.  

I have never been to South Dakota.  The closest I've ever gotten was Sioux City, when I made my friends drive me across the border to take a picture with the South Dakota sign in order to say I had been there.  I would definitely go to the Badlands again and spend more time there.

The Crazy Horse Memorial was another of my "must see" places on our drive.  It was fascinating.  Since we already had a full day of driving, we were rolling in as the sun was setting.  I kind of figured we would go look at the monument and then move on.  I was wrong.  

You can spend all day at Crazy Horse!  I had no idea!  If I were to do it again, I would plan more time there.  During the day, they have all kinds of exhibits happening, plus a cool museum, video about Crazy Horse, a cafe, etc.  It is a work in progress, so they are working hard to raise money to keep the work progressing.  Above, you can see the white outline of where the horse's head will be carved.  

Sunday evening was a perfect time to be visiting the exhibit!  There were people there, but it wasn't crowded at all.  We could really take our time checking it all out (if we had the time, that is). 

The Crazy Horse Memorial does a laser light show every night and you can also take a bus from the 1980s closer to the monument.  We opted out of the bus because it cost extra and we were short on time because we had other things planned for later so we missed the light show as well.  I learned that you can do a laser show on Crazy Horse because it is not a government monument and therefore laser shows are allowed.  I learned fascinating things, guys.

We did view the video and get some history on how Crazy Horse is being sculpted and the extent of the project.  I wandered the museum area and learned about the project and a little American Indian history.

It's wild to think that someday that rock will look like this statue!

Unfortunately, the sun was quickly setting and we were still planning to hit up the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore, so we had to head out.

We piled back into the car to go find the presidents before sunset.  Until next time, Crazy Horse.