West Trip Day Four

Today we made the drive up to Mt. Rushmore twice.  It's about 20 minutes or so away from our motel room so it's a bit of a drive, but I wanted to see it at dark and I knew tomorrow would not be a possibility with the basketball game on and all!  Nothing more important in life than that!

We first headed up there around noon to do the Presidential Trail hike.  I really checked things out on the internet before going and I swear I saw a website that said the trail was pet friendly.  It wasn't until we were finished with the hike that I saw the no dogs sign...wooops.  

Yesterday when we paid for parking the attendant made sure to tell me where dogs were and weren't allowed (she didn't mention the trail though).  Today, I even told the attendant we were there to hike the trail and she said nothing about the dog.  And I know she saw him because he was hanging halfway out the window to greet her. @friendliestdogintheworld.  

Only half of the trail was open but we still got some fantastic views...once we reached the end we just had to turn around and re-walk the same trail back.  It wasn't a long trail but had about 250 steps to climb so we got some good exercise.  And some incredible views...totally worth the walk.

Resting up after those 250 steps - but only for a second

As we were leaving there were a couple mountain goats grazing on the side of the road - of course Ollie went wild!

After that we were going to do the Presidential Wax Museum in Keystone but it was closed for Easter Sunday.  By the way, Keystone has a population of only 327 but my guess is that it is the busiest little town in the world...very "touristy"

We went back to our room instead where I almost fell asleep about a half dozen times - and probably would have if there hadn't been a gang gathering in the parking lot right outside our window complete with drinking, smoking, and music that pretty much all you could hear was the bass!

For dinner we returned to Ruby Tuesday because 1). we had a great meal yesterday (blackened salmon and grilled zucchini - yum) and 2). it was close to our motel.  

Then we made the trip back up to Mt. Rushmore to see it lit.  It was still a little early and not completely dark but good enough for us.

Think I took this by accident but it's the best example of the lighting

I think the antibiotics are working because today all I had was a dull ache as opposed to throbbing pain!

Finally, just a couple pictures from last night of Ollie being needy for attention

So far I'm loving my camera - no more blurry pictures