Mount Rushmore National Memorial

From the National Park Service brochure, "When sculptor Gutzon Borglum looked up on the knobby, cracked face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he saw a vision of four United States presidents carved into the mountain."

"Between 1927 and 1941, with the help of over 400 workers and several influential politicians, Borglum began carving a memorial to the history of America."

"Today Mount Rushmore is host to more than three million visitors each year from across the country and around the world."  I also read that no one lost their lives during the carving of the monument.

It's amazing to me how they were able to carve such huge figures.  Notice how the pupils in the eyes were left sticking out while the irises were dug in to create the shading?  I took this close up because I could see the glint of something on his forehead.  Still don't know what it was.

I bet some of the boulders on the slope are as large as cars.

We decided to walk the Presidential Trail for a closer look.  It took us down around 150 stone steps then up 250 wooden steps to a viewpoint of the carvings.

What's that on Teddy's head?

Looks like a security camera... maybe.

The Carver's Museum had some information about how the faces were carved.

I didn't get a good photo here because of the crowd.  The bottom left photo shows the entrance to the hall of records and says; "Important historical documents were to be placed in the Hall of Records including a history of the United States, busts of famous people and a list of U.S. contributions to the world."  The middle photo's captions finishes; "was placed in the floor of the entry to the Hall of Records."  The bottom right photo's caption is; "The repository is made of a teak cask, surrounded by a titanium vault and covered by a granite capstone."

I had no idea that the carvings were supposed to show more of the bodies of the presidents.

When I tried to take a photo of the air compressor, all I got was my reflection in the glass.

The rock stairs down to the Sculptor's Studio and the wooden stairs leading up to the viewpoint were horribly crowded on our outbound trip.  Going back they were much less populated.

View of the Grand View Terrace above the Lincoln Borglum Visitor Center and the amphitheater.

These stairs along the Sculptor's Studio were full of people on our way to the viewpoint.

Tourist helicopter buzzed around as we were there but these two military helicopters went over.

Our first foray into the Black Hills this trip was to Hill City to ride the train.  On that trip we went on the road below these two bridges.  On the way to Mount Rushmore we went on the lower bridge, like the car in the photo is going to do.  We turned wrong today but if we would have gone the correct way, we would have gone on the top span.