Stone Me

Black Hills and Badlands, South Dakota,
Saturday 4th August- Sunday 5th August

I have to confess that the Crazy Horse Monument was something that had not truly entered my conciousness prior to our visit there.

Everybody knows about the famous granite monument to commemorate four US presidents, Mount Rushmore, but the native American equivalent to symobolise their societies' ideals does not always draw similar recognition.

Built in response to the completion of the Mount Rushmore in 1941 and begun in 1948, an eternal quest for funding, hindered also by the fact that they have deliberately sought only private finance, has meant that at present only the face of Crazy Horse is clearly distinguishable in the rock.

It is unlikely that the project will be completed in our lifetime, but once finished this three dimensional statue of the Native Indian warrior will dominate a complex consisting of various native cultural and educational institutions.

It was with some sense of bathos that we then headed to the significantky more famous Mount Rushmore, which although still an incredibly remarkable feat, somehow now managed to pale into significance when compared to our previous excursion.

Where incidentally all the four presidents heads of Mount Rushmore could fit into the one single head of the Crazy Horse Monument.

In the afternoon we took a brief excursion to the small town of Wall, home to a unique department store famous across the world, Wall Drug.

With the promise of free ice water, and the novelty manequins and items of Americana that decorate the premises, the reputation of Wall Drug has spread to such an extent that it has become a renowned toursit site in its own right.

Following a couple of hours in Wall we then headed through the Badlands National Park to our accomodation for the evening.

The Badlands are a strange canyon-esque environment where the ancient seabed that was once there has risen through geological activity and has subsequently eroded to form this wonderous landscape of sand mountains, littered by fossils of its former inhabitants.

With such a remarkable setting and after having spent the previous night in a damp tent, I can't say how much of a relief it was to spend that evening in our log cabin located by the park.