After the heat died down from our day in the Badlands, we took one last hike, on which was the following ladder (Chris was disappointed I didn't put these up).
After a big day, we went back to camp for refreshment (we were so hot, and so sweaty, I will remember this particular glass of pineapple juice for the rest of my life, probably):
And then Chris and I play gin rummy. He taught me in Minnesota; I'm still losing, here in the Badlands, but by the time we make it to Glacier I can pretty much beat him handily (possibly the only thing I can beat him at on a consistent basis, actually).
The next day we drive to Mount Rushmore, because, well, it's Mount Rushmore! It is just barely into the off season by the time we arrive, but the volume of people the park is equipped to handle is kind of amazing. Because......somebody carved a bunch of massive faces into a mountain!
It really is quite large. After wandering around the park for a while, I manage to put together a sentence with the word "hubris" in it. "Yes," Chris says. "This is the kind of thing they make fun of the North Korean dictator for. For stuff like carving his face into a mountain."
The pile of rubble beneath is the debris from the dynamite they used - they didn't clear it away, they just let it pile up at the bottom of the mountain.
The surrounding landscape is the Black Hills National Forest, which turns out to be much prettier than I expected, and I really regretted not scheduling a night there. But, we had a deadline! And a hotel room with a shower calling our name in Billings, Montana.
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