Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: I, Noah, the eldest Nomad son, has returned! What will I be regaling you with this lovely day? Glad you asked! After a day of driving and hiking through the South Dakota Badlands, a tired (but content) Nomad family, ready to save money and not pay an arm ‘n leg for a hotel room, checked into Presidents View Resort. A room with a balcony was the one we had reserved, as the hotel quickly became fully booked as we arrived (we bring the crowds it seems), and it’s a quick walk to the downtown area below. Tempting as it was to immediately lay our heads down on the comfy beds, the Nomads rushed to the door, to lean over the balcony and see our goal through the trees: Mount Rushmore (get the italics now?…it’s a joke). When looking at Mount Rushmore from a distance, I would recommend asking the sun to stay up, because you can’t really compete with the golden solar rays lighting up the stark white surface of past presidential faces. And also because the faces look kinda creepy at night.
Moving on from that, let us fast forward a few hours. We Nomads got up bright and early at 6:30 A.M. (that’s early to us, okay?), to make it to Mount Rushmore before all the other people arrived. It’s a good thing we did, too. When we got there ’round 7 A.M., we found the parking garage basically deserted, and the same could be said for the paths to the visitor center, and near Mount Rushmore itself. By the time we left at 9:30 A.M., the place was packed with more visitors than you could count, and some buses you wanted to pretend didn’t exist due to the sheer amount of people getting off of them. So, it’s probably best you didn’t put yourself in one of those situations, unless you enjoy sharing the path with so many moving bodies that the Walking Dead looks like a cake walk.
After you’ve arrived early, your next stop will most likely be the Grand View Terrace, which is quite aptly named, considering the grand view you get of Mount Rushmore. A wide patio opens up to a spectacular frontal view of all four presidents, bathed in wreaths of warm, amber sunlight (which is when you realize that even though the mornings are cool, the afternoons are not). Well, except for ol’ Teddy. Due to looking like the photo bomber of the ensemble, his morning hours are spent in varying degrees of darkness. But you can really capture the majesty of George Washington. From. Every. Single. Viewing. Station.
So you’ve fully soaked in the beauty of this giant monument, yes? That’s what you think! Now you must go to Sculptor’s Studio, so you can learn all the fun stuff about Mount Rushmore! For instance, during the entire 14 years of its construction, there wasn’t one single worker death. Oh, also, it took 14 years to build it. During the course of this near decade and a half construction, 800 million pounds of stone was removed from the cliff side, 506 steps were climbed every day by workers, washing machines caused power outages that halted drilling, and workers drilled holes into lines to have hot air on them while they worked. Somebody eventually thought of a space heater though, so it’s all good.
At the studio, you will also discover that, originally, each president was going to be sculpted from their torso up. There would be elegant cutouts of everything from their neckerchiefs to the buttons on their coats; the entire thing would be magnificent. However, due to budget cuts (which is what happens when trying to sculpt a mountain during the Great Depression, I guess), everyone only got their face put in. Except for Washington. This also explains why Lincoln looks like Van Gogh with the beginnings of some sideburns-turned-mullet. There is, however, a plaster model of what Mount Rushmore was to look like originally, complete with Thomas Jefferson holding aloft a pen in scholarly thought, instead of peaking his head over George’s shoulder. Teddy still looked like a photo bomber though.
In addition, there’s an entire photo album with tons of pictures of Mount Rushmore being built, and one eerie looking photograph of a partially completed head to the left of George Washington. Who was this mysterious head, effaced from history? It was Jefferson. The mountainside was unstable to the left, so they squeezed him in to the right. Don’t worry though, George’s shoulder will eventually be eroded away at the extraordinary rate of 1 inch for every 10,000 years. So Jefferson just has to be patient.
The final thing you might notice before going onto the trails around the mountain is another sculpture in the studio: of a hallowed out chamber. You might be scratching your head and thinking, “Huh, is there more to Mount Rushmore?” Yes! The plaster mold you see opposite the original conception of the four presidents is a model for The Hall of Records. What is The Hall of Records you might ask? Oh, just a secret little room not accessible to the public drilled into the side of Mount Rushmore containing 16 porcelain enamel panels that details how Mount Rushmore was built, as well as important documents like the text of the Constitution or Declaration of Independence.
The original Hall of Records was supposed to be an ornate, 8000 square foot room, with many carvings and inscriptions in it, containing the original forms of documents like the Constitution, with 800 granite steps leading up to this publicly accessible chamber. Due to the death of the architect, Gutzon Borglum, and the end of funding, it was instead a 70 foot hole in the side of the mountain. Finally, in 1998, a compromise was met, and a titanium vault containing the 16 porcelain enamel panels was put in the room, under a 1200 pound granite block. All the security is because this is supposed to last thousands of years, to let future civilizations know who built Mount Rushmore and why, as well as the history of the nation who built it.
You will find, though, that the majority of your time will be spent in the Sculptor’s Studio, and that the President’s Trail is an easy 0.60 mile trail that climbs only 59 feet up, and can be done in 45 minutes or less. It is all stairs however (422 of them, to be exact), so if stairs give you as much problems as Lucy and a football does to Charlie Brown, seeing Mount Rushmore from below is still very breathtaking. If you know anything about the presidents that have their giant faces on a mountain, you probably won’t need to stop at the little signs they have giving a bit of information about each one. If you don’t know much about those presidents, then you might want to check out some of the factoids they have; they can prove to be quite interesting. Plus, it gives you a reason to stop and catch a breath if you decided to engage in a battle with stairs.
The President’s Trail allows you to (legally) get as close as you can to this giant structure of sweat, tears, and (minimal) blood that took 14 years to complete. While hiking the President’s Trail, you’re likely to see several little chipmunks scurrying about, but you can’t even be angry at them for distracting you from the mountain; they’re just too darn cute. While the Nomads didn’t engage in any other activities at the monument, there were audio tours, park ranger tours and activities, and a 14 minute film about making Mount Rushmore. There are clean bathrooms and eating options available, including ice cream. Because, if you didn’t know, apparently Thomas Jefferson was the first one in America with an ice cream recipe. I’m not sure if they’ve stuck to it or not, but there’s only one way to find out! Mount Rushmore is a perfect place to go early in the day to avoid mobs of people, learn some interesting facts that make you feel like a conspiracy theorist, go on an easy hike, and see a megalithic monument carved out of a mountain; a testament to human engineering and dedication. It is not, however, a perfect place to fly your drone; unmanned craft is a strict no-no at Mount Rushmore. Now get out there, have an awesome day, and see some giant president faces! Just keep your quadcopter at home.
