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Any good Mt. Rushmore tips?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack O'Neill
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Mt. Rushmore was a big disappointment for me, when I first saw it. Make a brief visit if you have to satisfy the kids (don't take any photos, just buy a post card), but plan on spending more time in the nearby, more scenic attractions, like the Badlands, Black Hills, and Devil's Tower Wyoming. Go on a hike in the Badlands at sunrise or sunset, and you can get some very dramatic photos. It will likely be hot in mid-day.
-David
Jack O'Neill said:
We are planning on going up for a couple of days on Monday and if
anyone has any good tips on good photo ops, hotels or fun spots for
the kids; please let me know.

Jack
--
http://www.pbase.com/joneill
Click to expand...
--
David



http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/home?userid= {F351C88E-FEF7-4892-9F30-9FD2DDD1593C}&tio=0tio=0&st=he&GUID={0AB0EAE9-1AF7-41AE-966B-588570432D96}&sent=stored
 
I took my kids to Mt. Rushmore on the way home (to Illinois) from a Grand Tetons/Yellowstone trip. The surrounding area is as touristy as you will ever see, but we had a surprising amount of fun. We went to Mt. Rushmore itself 3 times -- both evenings we were there and one early morning. Once you pay your admission fee, you can go back as many times as you want if you are in the same car. My favorite photo there was perching my kids up on the wall and having Mt. Rushmore behind them. It ended up on my Christmas card 2001 - very patriotic. Another place to photograph your kids is in front of the long row of state flags. This is hard to do without getting a lot of random strangers in the photo.

Badlands is NOT TO BE MISSED. We only had 3 hours there -- not enough. Very cool photos taken there, but take the advice to bring a polarizer. We had no idea how awesome it would be, but we needed to get home to start school.

Mt. Rushmore has a program in the evening where they show a video on giant screen then light up the faces. They have all the military veterans stand up and it will bring a tear to your eye. It did to me anyway, but I was a Navy brat. We went both nights we were there.

The waitress in a restaurant told us not to bother with the Crazy Horse memorial. You can see it from the road so bring your long lens.

Make reservations in advance for one of the caves -- we went to Jewel Cave and there's also Wind Cave. These are National Parks or Monuments or something and you can make your reservations online I think through the Park Service. Jewel Cave was interesting and not at all strenuous to walk through -- it's mostly climbing up and down stairs. There was guy in our group who had had a knee replacement 6 weeks prior.

My kids enjoyed the bear park and the alligator park -- totally touristy attractions but fun for them (8 and 10 at the time). Good animal photos at the bear park, they come right up to your car, but keep the windows rolled up. Even the totally tacky woodcarving museum was fun although kind of weird.

Custer State Park was awesome -- lots of animals. We saw several Bighorn Sheep.

As far as photographing the actual faces on Mt. Rushmore, my most interesting photos were closeups of the individual faces -- another reason to bring your long lens. Also there is a tunnel somewhere (ask somebody) not too far away and I got a good photo of Mt. Rushmore framed by the tunnel.

Anyway, sorry this has gotten so long, but I thought Mt. Rushmore was getting a bad rap here. It was just a stopover for us, but I would like to go back sometime for several days. Just plan on putting a lot of miles on the car.

Liz
 
I've got a trip planned the end of august and am totally overwhelmed with all the information and things to see/photograph there. Sensory overload!! Will it get better or worse once I'm actually there?

d
Liz B. said:
I took my kids to Mt. Rushmore on the way home (to Illinois) from a
Grand Tetons/Yellowstone trip. The surrounding area is as touristy
as you will ever see, but we had a surprising amount of fun. We
went to Mt. Rushmore itself 3 times -- both evenings we were there
and one early morning. Once you pay your admission fee, you can go
back as many times as you want if you are in the same car. My
favorite photo there was perching my kids up on the wall and having
Mt. Rushmore behind them. It ended up on my Christmas card 2001 -
very patriotic. Another place to photograph your kids is in front
of the long row of state flags. This is hard to do without getting
a lot of random strangers in the photo.

Badlands is NOT TO BE MISSED. We only had 3 hours there -- not
enough. Very cool photos taken there, but take the advice to bring
a polarizer. We had no idea how awesome it would be, but we needed
to get home to start school.

Mt. Rushmore has a program in the evening where they show a video
on giant screen then light up the faces. They have all the
military veterans stand up and it will bring a tear to your eye.
It did to me anyway, but I was a Navy brat. We went both nights we
were there.

The waitress in a restaurant told us not to bother with the Crazy
Horse memorial. You can see it from the road so bring your long
lens.

Make reservations in advance for one of the caves -- we went to
Jewel Cave and there's also Wind Cave. These are National Parks or
Monuments or something and you can make your reservations online I
think through the Park Service. Jewel Cave was interesting and not
at all strenuous to walk through -- it's mostly climbing up and
down stairs. There was guy in our group who had had a knee
replacement 6 weeks prior.

My kids enjoyed the bear park and the alligator park -- totally
touristy attractions but fun for them (8 and 10 at the time). Good
animal photos at the bear park, they come right up to your car, but
keep the windows rolled up. Even the totally tacky woodcarving
museum was fun although kind of weird.

Custer State Park was awesome -- lots of animals. We saw several
Bighorn Sheep.

As far as photographing the actual faces on Mt. Rushmore, my most
interesting photos were closeups of the individual faces -- another
reason to bring your long lens. Also there is a tunnel somewhere
(ask somebody) not too far away and I got a good photo of Mt.
Rushmore framed by the tunnel.

Anyway, sorry this has gotten so long, but I thought Mt. Rushmore
was getting a bad rap here. It was just a stopover for us, but I
would like to go back sometime for several days. Just plan on
putting a lot of miles on the car.

Liz
Click to expand...
 
is an excellent place to photograph wildlife. I think there are more bison there than in Yellowstone... also deer, elk, big horn sheep, antelope, prairie dogs and wild burros that will come right up and stick their heads in your car.

As suggested before, the Badlands and one of the caves mentioned are a good idea. Do the caves sometime when it's either raining or HOT outside. Devils Tower is also a nice stop. (I'm going golfing there later this week.) Take the walk around the base of it. It's an easy, mostly level walk. If you have binoculars you'll see climbers hanging on the verticle walls.

We don't tell many tourists about this, but a very pretty drive is to go from Hulett, WY (just north of Devils Tower) to Cook Lake. It's mostly a gravel road, lightly traveled. Very pretty though. You can hike around the lake or take a rather strenuous walk on Cliff Swallows Trail just below the lake -- probably too much for smaller kids . You'll most likely only see locals on this drive. We pretty much keep it to ourselves.

For the kids, head toward the faces from Rapid City and you'll come across lots of places the kids would enjoy. The Reptile Gardens is one of my favorite places for families. Six-eight miles past that you'll come across Bear Country USA and then a petting "farm" that the kids might like. The Hills are a great place for a family vacation. Lots of fun tourist traps!

The faces at night plus some pics around Custer Park by one of my students:

http://www.photoz.net/rushmore.html
http://www.photoz.net/Hayley/index.html
 
You'll find an abundance of hotels in Rapid City, though they may fill up rather quickly this time of the year. Spearfish also has some nice hotels... but one of my favorites is the Canyon Inn... or Spearfish Canyon Inn (Not sure of the name). It's located in Spearfish Canyon and is very nice. (between Spearfish and Lead, SD.

Oh, and if you get to Lead, the kids, depending on their ages, might get a kick out of panning for gold... or taking a ride on the 1890 train.
 
I was at Mt. Rushmore a few weeks ago and was totally bummed out by the airport-style security. You'll be emptying your pockets and taking off your belts just like you were flying out of LaGuardia. What, somebody's going to take the mountain hostage with box-cutters? Sheesh. This security thing has gone way too far.

As an example, out this park ranger with his M16:


Jack O'Neill said:
We are planning on going up for a couple of days on Monday and if
anyone has any good tips on good photo ops, hotels or fun spots for
the kids; please let me know.

Jack
--
http://www.pbase.com/joneill
Click to expand...
--
http://www.pbase.com/davek/
 
We went on a trip and wasted way too much time at Mt. Rushmore and ended up not having enough time to get out to Devils Tower. If you must see it...look fast take a few shots and get moving. The badlands was great and too vast to take it all in, in just a few hours.



Dave
 
Yellowstone was FABULOUS! You will have such a good time and come home with hundreds of great photos. I want to go again now that I have gone digital.

Highlights include: Old Faithful, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Beartooth Pass, Morning Glory Pool. Get up early in the morning and go, go, go until it gets dark. Buy the little maps they have (maybe $1 each) and see everything on them. We did a lot of short hikes, like Uncle Tom's Trail and the Brink of the Lower Falls Trail. We were there for 5 days and did all the major stuff. Just concentrate on one area a day, then go back and do more at your favorite places.

We stayed at the cabins at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. The cabins were kind of slummy -- I didn't shave my legs the whole time because I didn't want to stay in the shower that long. There wasn't that much to do around Lake Yellowstone but the kids enjoyed going over to the lake after dinner and throwing rocks into it.

The places we went back to were Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the boardwalk around Old Faithful. Make sure you walk all the way out to Morning Glory Pool -- a lot of people stay around Old Faithful and miss a lot. We are easily entertained though -- we stop at every geyser, pool, mudpot, etc. and wait for something to happen.

The only disappointment was that in August, Minerva Terrace is all dried out and bleached white. That was the most crowded part of the park though. In fact, I ran into someone there that I had worked with before I had my 13-year-old. She had moved to Virginia years ago and was there visiting her parents in Idaho. Small world.

Also, the drive up Beartooth Pass is spectacular. You leave the park, but the part of the park that you take to get there is where the wolves and bears tend to hang. Get up early for that.

MAKE SURE YOU GET GAS AT NIGHT because the gas stations don't open til 8 or 9 in the morning. We got up one morning at 5 to go out and were stuck til the gas stations opened -- that was a drag. Plan on putting many, many miles on your car and paying Yellowstone prices for all that gas. I put 4001 miles on my car from Champaign, IL to Grand Tetons to Yellowstone to Mt. Rushmore and back home. 1200 of those miles were touring miles, not traveling miles.

Anyway, have fun. You will have a great time.

Liz
 
Follow the link for my portfolio from last month. Still a work in progress...

I will tell you that the less time you spend in Hill City, Keystone, and other traps, the happier you'll be. Go via motorcycle if possible...

http://www.pbase.com/crcherry/south_dakota

Carl
Jack O'Neill said:
We are planning on going up for a couple of days on Monday and if
anyone has any good tips on good photo ops, hotels or fun spots for
the kids; please let me know.

Jack
--
http://www.pbase.com/joneill
Click to expand...
 
THANKS!!

Good to know about the gas because I plan on being going at first light or before. And really hadn't considered Old Faithful lol ......I'm more of a far from the madding crowd type.

d
Liz B. said:
Yellowstone was FABULOUS! You will have such a good time and come
home with hundreds of great photos. I want to go again now that I
have gone digital.

Highlights include: Old Faithful, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,
Beartooth Pass, Morning Glory Pool. Get up early in the morning
and go, go, go until it gets dark. Buy the little maps they have
(maybe $1 each) and see everything on them. We did a lot of short
hikes, like Uncle Tom's Trail and the Brink of the Lower Falls
Trail. We were there for 5 days and did all the major stuff. Just
concentrate on one area a day, then go back and do more at your
favorite places.

We stayed at the cabins at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. The cabins
were kind of slummy -- I didn't shave my legs the whole time
because I didn't want to stay in the shower that long. There
wasn't that much to do around Lake Yellowstone but the kids enjoyed
going over to the lake after dinner and throwing rocks into it.

The places we went back to were Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and
the boardwalk around Old Faithful. Make sure you walk all the way
out to Morning Glory Pool -- a lot of people stay around Old
Faithful and miss a lot. We are easily entertained though -- we
stop at every geyser, pool, mudpot, etc. and wait for something to
happen.

The only disappointment was that in August, Minerva Terrace is all
dried out and bleached white. That was the most crowded part of
the park though. In fact, I ran into someone there that I had
worked with before I had my 13-year-old. She had moved to Virginia
years ago and was there visiting her parents in Idaho. Small world.

Also, the drive up Beartooth Pass is spectacular. You leave the
park, but the part of the park that you take to get there is where
the wolves and bears tend to hang. Get up early for that.

MAKE SURE YOU GET GAS AT NIGHT because the gas stations don't open
til 8 or 9 in the morning. We got up one morning at 5 to go out
and were stuck til the gas stations opened -- that was a drag.
Plan on putting many, many miles on your car and paying Yellowstone
prices for all that gas. I put 4001 miles on my car from
Champaign, IL to Grand Tetons to Yellowstone to Mt. Rushmore and
back home. 1200 of those miles were touring miles, not traveling
miles.

Anyway, have fun. You will have a great time.

Liz
Click to expand...
 
You can't miss Old Faithful. The reason we went to Yellowstone in the first place was that I read in Family Fun magazine the 5 things that you have to take your kids to see are Old Faithful, Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, Niagara Falls and the Statue of Liberty. As my husband will tell you, I am a little bit on the wacky side so I decided to take them to all 5 places. In the summer of 2000, I took them to see the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon and in the summer of 2001, I took them to see Old Faithful and Mt. Rushmore. We haven't made it to Niagara Falls yet even though it's the closest one to us. Maybe in August...

Anyway, right when you get there, go see Old Faithful and sit on the benches with alll the tourists. Then take the hike up to Observation Point and you will be able to see it again from a different vantage point. Believe me, about .01% of the tourists would even consider this walk (it's not hard at all). Hike back down and take the boardwalk out towards the other assorted geysers and it should be ready to go off again. You have to go to Old Faithful to get on the trail to Morning Glory Pool, which is NOT TO BE MISSED! It is beautiful.

We probably saw Old Faithful go off about 8 times total on two different days. I wouldn't have missed it.

Liz
 
As a native of the area (now living on the overpopulated East Coast) I would agree that Custer State Park and Devils Tower are good photo stops. For the best photos get the Badlands in morning/evening light, which may take some planning since they are some distance from the Black Hills. Mid-day light is far too harsh in the Badlands to shoot anything except prairie dogs. Mt. Rushmore itself is easy to shoot just about any time. Take a tripod and you can get some night shots. There are many more trails and you can get a lot closer than when I lived there. Take a tripod and you can get some night shots.
Newk said:
is an excellent place to photograph wildlife. I think there are
more bison there than in Yellowstone... also deer, elk, big horn
sheep, antelope, prairie dogs and wild burros that will come right
up and stick their heads in your car.

As suggested before, the Badlands and one of the caves mentioned
are a good idea. Do the caves sometime when it's either raining or
HOT outside. Devils Tower is also a nice stop. (I'm going golfing
there later this week.) Take the walk around the base of it. It's
an easy, mostly level walk. If you have binoculars you'll see
climbers hanging on the verticle walls.

We don't tell many tourists about this, but a very pretty drive is
to go from Hulett, WY (just north of Devils Tower) to Cook Lake.
It's mostly a gravel road, lightly traveled. Very pretty though.
You can hike around the lake or take a rather strenuous walk on
Cliff Swallows Trail just below the lake -- probably too much for
smaller kids . You'll most likely only see locals on this drive. We
pretty much keep it to ourselves.

For the kids, head toward the faces from Rapid City and you'll come
across lots of places the kids would enjoy. The Reptile Gardens is
one of my favorite places for families. Six-eight miles past that
you'll come across Bear Country USA and then a petting "farm" that
the kids might like. The Hills are a great place for a family
vacation. Lots of fun tourist traps!

The faces at night plus some pics around Custer Park by one of my
students:

http://www.photoz.net/rushmore.html
http://www.photoz.net/Hayley/index.html
Click to expand...
 
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