Friday - Mt. Rushmore

19 September 2014 – Friday

Worried about heat again, we headed out early for another hike.  Ellen had picked out this ‘moderate-to-difficult’ 3-mile hike named ‘Lovers Leap’ where legend has it that young lovers had once jumped.  It turns out that they wanted to jump from a very ‘high’ place…. so I definitely want to talk to whoever allowed the adjective ‘moderate’ to be used.  

We were also informed at the trailhead that the last half mile along a creek bed was infested with poison ivy (we both had shorts on).  The hike was worth the (significant) effort.  We were careful through the poison ivy but still went back to a visitor center and washed our legs thoroughly before heading up to Mount Rushmore.

We took the Iron Mountain Highway and had a tailgate lunch at Mt. Rushmore.  We quickly saw the facility and then spent an hour with a Park Ranger on a tour and did the ‘Presidents Walk’.  Their description of extremely difficult was only ‘slightly’ exaggerated.  We were glad we went there before the weekend.

We took the ‘Needles Highway’ back to the campground and we both took showers before relaxing for the evening.  We’re going to take it easy tomorrow and maybe look for a laundromat.