May 2nd. In the footsteps of Cary Grant. Mount Rushmore and Deadwood

Another couple of bucket list stops ticked off on this day. 😁

(As with all previous posts all of the pictures are clickable if you desire a closer look and anything underlined is a clickable link to more information)

Broken Arrow Horsecamp is such a great spot….it was 34 minutes drive to Mount Rushmore. Our plan for the day was to get there before any kind of ‘rush’ that there might be at this time of year……and then carry on up the road to Deadwood.

Rushmore is …well its spectacular. Its one of those things you just have to go and see at some point. There were a few people there but it could not be described as busy by any means.

We followed the boardwalk around . It is an interesting path…at different points on the walk you can see the monument up through the trees…but each point gives you a view of just one of them with the information boards on the trail.

The best view is from the sculptors studio. From there ( it had been raining in the morning)…..you can see Washington crying ( as I’m quite sure he would be today..!!)

We had a scout about trying to decide where the shots were taken for the movie North by Northwest (Hitchcock/Cary Grant movie…!!!….we have had it confirmed since that the flags were not there at that time….!!)

A quick stop was made at the gift shop for my Rushmore token. ( I started collecting the National Parks tokens…..and decided I should probably have a pin from each place too…!!)

Next stop, on up the road to Deadwood. It’s the place where history meets myth and legend. We had been told the town was quite commercialized and ruined. We had visions of a Niagara Falls type town…it really was not that bad….other than the plethora of gambling establishments….(wowser…every second store..!!) but there is still a lot of the historic town.

We just had to go up to the historic cemetery at Moriah. Burial place of Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane and Seth Bullock. It was a bit of a bucket list thing also….

Seth Bullocks grave is on up the hill away from the rest of the cemetery.

We stopped off in the gift shop on the way back to ask about it. Why was he not in the regular cemetery with everyone else. The guy in there grew up in the town and told us it was at Mr Bullocks request that he be up on the hill…high enough to be able to see the Friendship Monument on the next hill. It was a monument that he had been instrumental in erecting to the honour of Teddy Roosevelt ( with whom he had become good friends with in life.)

Unfortunately the path to that one was still snow covered so we could not go up there…..maybe next time.

We stopped of at a lovely little craft brewer, Jacobs Brewery and Grocer, in town for coffee. We looked at the menu and ended up staying for a delicious lunch.

Then the very scenic drive back home…..to watch North by Northwest again (as excited as little kids…LOL…!!!)