Man, you're making me want to go out west so much! Thanks for sharing all these photos. It's a nice reminder of how many really cool things there are to be found right here in this country, and this is certainly an impressive piece of carving. Plus the mountain itself is just plain cool.

You should!! And all this is pretty close together too. You can do Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse in one day easily...taking your time at each one. They're right on the same road out of Custer, So. Dak.
I've been to 4 National Parks so far on this trip and a couple of National Monuments...with more to come. Tomorrow I'll go to Jewel Cave NM which is only a few miles from here too.
I love sharing these pix. These are places everyone should try to visit if they can. I'm so glad I've been able to!!

If I ever have the wherewithal to travel again, I'll definitely have to see if I can't get out that way. There are just so many things I'd love to be able to see, and so many places I'd love to visit!

And I'd like to see a lot of stuff back east, though I have no idea whether or not I'll ever want to drive that far. Maybe fly back, buy a car or van, travel around in it, and sell it before flying back out west. That could work.

was that early practice version for Mount Rushmore?

No....it's an ongoing project for Native Americans. Nothing at all to do with Rushmore.

from what I remember and don't shoot me for being incorrect but a guy in the us was inspired by the construction of Mount Rushmore.
And this particular American, if memory serves me who run a gas station this as back in the 50's or wean ever it was Rushmore was being done
started too do hes oun mountainside sculpture I forget which president or who it was of;) but the guy and his kids back and forth worked on it wean not
working at the gas station. I remember it being mentioned on a program back in the early 90s that it was similar to Mount Rushmore but was just a single phase I forget how many decades
It took the family to do the construction.given this is not just going to be a face and a rock, but I think from what I read in another picture you posted.
It's going to be a guy on horseback. It's definitely going to take a long time. How long did it take to get the face done?

Actually the guy lived back east and was invited by a Lakota chief to come out to make a sculpted mountain like Rushmore only of an Indian hero. He moved out here for that purpose only and he and his family worked on it from 1948 on.
I don't know how long any particular part of it took. But it's taken quite a while to get this far.

gezzs crist 1948;)
i feal old

What? Were you born before that? I was born the next year. 1949

woo :) haven't been there in years :)

It's pretty neat! And the center has a lot of very interesting exhibits to see also.

yup :)worth the visit. wish we had timed it when they were doing tours up to the face.

They aren't doing any to the top of the head presently, but you can go up onto the arm. It costs and arm.....and a leg to do so though. I guess you can go right up to the face there.

yup seen pictures of it but yea I've heard 'tis a spendy tour event lol

I'll stick to my zoom lens for close up views. Much cheaper.

yea but i dun have that fancy a camera lol zoom ain't strong enough to get it from the museum/visitors center thing

I DID sort of cheat huh? But that's one of the reasons I bought it. For things I couldn't get close to.

yea :) wish i had the cash for a good slr lol :)

I never realized how much difference it makes having one. Though it's a bit of a pain to carry on long hikes. Still worth it though.

yea i imagine it gets heavy after a bit lol

I have a little cigarette pack size Sony CyberShot 12.1 Megapixel camera that I've carried for years in a belt pouch and is great for hiking or anytime you want your hands free most of the time. But it doesn't zoom very much. Still, it takes nice pictures. Just not AS nice as my new Canon.

i have a powershot one :) sony are good lil cameras really. Have one i got as a display clearance at shopco for half of what refurb/new was on amazon that does up to 64x with digi zoom still not enough for some stuff but better than most :)

Yeah I used mine so much I've worn out 2 batteries and it's starting to get confused and wont un-zoom. I have to turn it off and start it again to get it off zoom. =p

He looks like he's wearing a crown there

Does kinda, huh?

His vision is augmented.

How do you mean?

BTW check out this lazer turret built into Abe's eye at Mt. Rushmore. Cool beans, I say!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cvrizz6x9.....z/abe.jpg?dl=0

I mean, those don't look like normal pupils. He's got the Illusive Man vibe going here.

Yeah, okay. I'll go with that.