AM We stayed in Gillette WY last night. The hotel had a nice little water park, so the kids swam until late. I didn't get a run in this morning which turned out better, because we had a major hike today.
Mount Rushmore always has one of the biggest fireworks shows in the U.S. for the 4th, but since the 4th was on a Saturday, they did it today instead. We heard it was going to be really crowded, so after a quick stop in Sturgis to see the motorcycle museum, we got to Keystone SD. By 2:30 PM the closest parking spot was 2.5 miles away. We ecided to use this as our daily hike, so we piled our coats, snacks, and folding chairs on our backs and took off up the hilll. When we got to the top, the park was packed already. There were people that got to the park at 6 AM just to get seats in the ampitheater. We set our stuff up in the woods on on the right side of the ampitheater. The monument was neat, but I think I must have expected a little more. I had always wanted to go to Rushmore, so I may have just built something bigger up in my mind.
By about 8 PM it started rain and the fog rolled in, so it covered the monument. We realized the fireworks were not going to be seen, so we started the hike back down the hill. we decided to run down so that we could beat the traffic.
We hadn't gotten a hotel room for the day, so the closest that we could find was a little dive on the east side of Newcastle WY. It was midnight and we were tired and just went right to bed. | 