The Battle of Little Big Horn & Mount Rushmore - History Lives!

While driving through South Dakota, we saw the sign for The Battle of Little Big Horn and remembered the Kevin Costener flick, "Dances with Wolves" and had to stop and check it out. This landmark was one of the major battle grounds of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, where the Sioux, Lakota and Northern Cheyenne Indians banded together to fight for their land after so many intrusions of the whites pushing them farther and farther out West. Let's just say it was a pretty gruesome battle and if you're interested in all the historical details you should look into because it is really quite interesting.

We drove through the Bozeman Trail and saw the graves of many fallen soldiers. There was even a little free cell phone audio tour that we got to do. All in all, it was a really cool thing to see that we hadn't really planned.

Next up is Mount Rushmore! We pulled into the parking lot and walked up tons of steps to see it in the distance. We got to the vantage point and took some pictures. Did I mention that it was freezing up there? I could barely crack a smile for my close-up. I hate to say it, but I thought that it was going to be much more grandeur than it was. Or I guess, I just figured it would bigger! Nonetheless, it was pretty amazing to think how they created this masterpiece. They even managed to make Teddy's mustache and eyeglasses perfectly replicated.

We walked around the bottom of the mountain where there was a trail built to get a closer look at the details. I told Ryan, that he and Thomas Jefferson have the same nose, nostrils in all. And by far, I thought Georgie was the cutest. The trail offered different looks at all the president's and offered plaques of information regarding their accomplishments in their presidency. We even got to take a look at the artist's studio (Gutzon Borglum) with plaster concept molds and tools used to carve out the mountain of granite. It took around 14 years to complete and there were no deaths, just minor injuries that occurred.

After we were finished admiring the carving and freezing our butts off, we headed back to the RV to shoot for The Badlands!