Day 44 - Saturday, August 30, 1997Rafter-J Bar Ranch Campground, Hill City, South Dakota - This morning we drove to Keystone and saw Mount Rushmore. While we've seen numerous pictures of it, we didn't quite realize the scale until we were on the mountain itself. They make you think they're really big, but they are really only about five feet tall (if that much). What a rip-off!We also took a bike ride along the McKellson Trail. This took us through some very scenic views. While there were no steep hills, one direction is downhill all the way which means you have to go uphill all the way to come back. Since we are at about 5,000 feet up, riding several miles on an uphill grade made us a bit winded. At around sunset we went to Custer State Park. We took the Wilderness Loop through the park to see all the wildlife. On a steep rocky incline we saw a bighorn sheep getting his dinner. We also spotted some deer grazing. We stopped at a prairie dog town. These little rodents are funny creatures...and quite social!! A wild donkey stopped our car for a couple of minutes just to be obnoxious. We also encountered a couple of herds of bison. These suckers are big. BIG! However they seemed quite passive as we drove by them. A couple of times they stopped in the middle of the road just because they could. You know you get a 2,000 pound bison to move out of your way? YOU DON'T!! After leaving the park we drove up Iron Mountain Road. This road is famous for its "Pigtail Turns", which are basically points where you make roundhouse 360º turns back underneath where you just were. We also passed through several very narrow tunnels through which most trucks and RVs could not pass. The road was full of blind corners and crazy turns. This all would have been fun except for two things: the road had no markings or lights and it was pitch black out!! By the time we were done with this 16 mile stretch of mountain road, we weren't sure who was more relieved: Marci-because she was driving or Jim-because Marci was driving!!
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