HAIL TO THE CHIEFS

You left us waiting for the snow to fly. Well, guess what: the weather forecasters in Rapid City are no better than in Niskayuna. The 6 inches predicted turned out to be a dusting that didn't even stick to the roadways. We decided to stick to the plan of going to Mt. Rushmore. We did decide to err on the side of caution and take the main road from Rapid City rather than either of the 2 scenic roads that also go to the mountain. Before we leave, today's pop quiz: Was Wall Drugs named for the town or was the town named after the founder of the store (Ezekial Wall)?
We did manage a picture of The Alex Johnson before we left:Note the vehicle in front of the hotel. If that poor baby knew that we weren't even halfway through the trip, it would have died on the spot. As we left Rapid City we passed several statues of famous folk who stayed in Rapid City (most at the Alex Johnson) - many are presidents from the late 1800's and early 1900's. Don't know what it is about SD that requires them to put up statues all over the place. However, from the glimpses of sky, you can see it seems like a nice, sunny day.
At last we leave and as we head south, we begin to climb into the Black Hills and almost immediately the amount of snow on the sides of the road is apparent. As we drive on we pass one of the possible side roads we could have taken, but it is closed due to bad road conditions.
Upon arriving at Mt. Rushmore our first view of the presidents is disappointing. They are not white and shiny, but grey and streaked. What happens to granite when it gets wet? It turns grey (duh!). You will now be bored by several more shots of the presidents, some from rather different locations as there is a path around the base that provides some unique angles. Note the constantly changing sky.

Note that our guide has caught up to us - we are so lucky to have her.
Unfortunately we could not walk all the way around as the path was snow covered and icy.

So we returned to the main viewing area to find that there wasn't much to view. From that point on the fog continued to lower until there was no visible evidence that the presidents were there. We stayed around to check for souvenirs and discuss road conditions with the park rangers. Both scenic roads were closed and were expected to remain that way for the rest of the day. Time to adjust our schedule. Originally we were going to spend the night in Hill City in the heart of the Black Hills. But rather than 'kill the afternoon', we opted to push west. We stopped in Spearfish (could not drive the scenic Spearfish Canyon road either - hopefully another day) to obtain accommodations for the night and find a Subway for lunch before heading west to Wyoming! See you tomorrow.