Welcome to another Travel Tuesday–we’ll be visiting Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial today!
Jaclyn and I definitely covered a hell of a lot of places over a couple days. To recap, we went from Minneapolis to Voyageurs National ParkVoyageurs National Park and split an 11 hour drive to get to South Dakota (Badlands National Park!).
Did I know that Mount Rushmore was in South Dakota before I started planning this road trip?
No, no I did not. (Would it surprise you if I told you that at one point, aka back in junior high and high school, I was pretty amazing at U.S. history? ._. )
Visiting Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial
Address: 13000 Highway 244, Building 31, Suite 1, Keystone, SD 57751
Hours: 5am – 11pm (from early March-September) – facilities open year round except 12/25!
Fee: $10 per vehicle* ($5 if 62yo+)
(*Your National Park Pass unfortunately cannot be used for parking!)
Mount Rushmore depicts the faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. It’s carved into the Black Hills of South Dakota and the faces are ~60 feet high!
You can learn more about Mount Rushmore here!
Next up, we’re moving on to…the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is only about 16 miles (~30 min drive) away from Mount Rushmore!
The Crazy Horse Memorial was built to honor the living heritage of North American Indians. The foundation’s mission is to protect and preserve their culture, heritage, and tradition.
This is 1/34th of the size of the memorial!
It’s the largest mountain carving in progress in the world! A sculptor named Korczak Ziolkowshi was invited by a Lakota Chief, Henry Standing Bear, to make the monument. As it’s still a work in progress, there are actually still several of his children and grandchildren working on the memorial today!
We did a lot of exploring in the visitor museums and gift shops!
Address: 12151 Avenue of the Chiefs, Crazy Horse, SD 57730
Admission: $7 (if on motorcycle/bike), $12 (1 person in vehicle), $24 (2 people in vehicle), or $30 (3+ people in vehicle)
Hours: ~8am-4/5 pm depending on the time of year (check here for more accurate info!)
You can learn more about the Crazy Horse Memorial here! :]
Here’s a random cute buffalo on a street corner in South Dakota! <3
- Have you ever been to South Dakota?
- Have you ever been to Mount Rushmore or the Crazy Horse Memorial?
2 comments
I’ve already told you but I loved visiting South Dakota too! It’s one of my favorite trips ever. Crazy Horse was so cool to see and learn about. I can’t believe how long they have been working on it. I can’t remember if they have a projected completion date but it’s already been so long? Also learning about the process of creating that and Mount Rushmore was so interesting. I don’t know how they can be so precise with it. It’s incredible!
I don’t remember them having a set completion date yet–it’s definitely been a long time, but I think they rely on grants/donations to make it happen, so I guess the progress can be slow/sped up depending on that? It was super cool getting to learn about how each of them were made (/being made)!