Germans living in the USA: Monumental Memorial Day weekend

I guess we must be finally americanized to make a ten hours one way trip at Memorial Day weekend. But to be honest, driving a US highway is much calmer than driving the German Autobahn. 10 hours would be equal to a trip from Hamburg to Munich without traffic jams and speed limits on the left lane at about 160km/h (=100mph). Something very unlikely I would never do. Because even at 160km/h on the left lane, somebody would be faster ...

However, here in the US we drove from SE Minnesota to Western South Dakota where our friends and us had both rented a cabin in the Black Hills. And we did some major sight seeing!

Our first stop after checking in was - of course - Mount Rushmore. Overseas, this mountain carving is as much an icon of the United States as Lady Liberty in New York. We also heard a lot of foreign languages on the terrace and the President's Trail. I was also surprised by the variety of license plates in the parking lot. The only state I remember not having seen was Hawaii. ;)

Mount Rushmore - unfinished rock carving

Afterwards, we checked the map to see what also to do before returning to the small and rustic cabin. To our surprise, the world's largest mountain carving in progress, the Crazy Horse Memorial was just 15 miles south! What started as a one man's vision in 1948, is now continued and funded by a non-profit organization. Offers of financial support from the U.S. government have been turned down at least twice ... Therefore, it still is a lot of work to do before the carving looks like the model. The head alone took 50 years to complete!

Crazy Horse Memorial - unfinished rock carving 2 - but work is in progress

One day, it should look like that ...

Because we celebrated camping to much on Saturday, our Sunday started late ... We had late lunch at this lake and picknick spot in Custer State Park - such a beautiful place!

Nature at its purest, Custer State Park

Afterwards, we continued our monumental sight seeing to Wyoming. You might know the Steven Spielberg movie where this impressive butte or monolith was featured prominently in. Its official name Devils Tower was caused by a wrong translation, the most common Native American name would be Bear's Lodge.

Devils Tower, Wyoming - a "rock pimple"

On Monday (Memorial Day), we packed, returned the keys and hit the road again. But we left the I-90 in Wall (but did not stop at Wall Drug Store though it was advertised along the interstate since we entered South Dakota) and took the scenic loop through Badlands National Park. Wow!
The sun was shining brightly, we had bottled water in the park - but I somehow felt drying out while taking those pictures of the several viewpoints featured along the road.