It is hard to believe it has been 8 years since we took a road trip to move my baby brother to the University of Nebraska. Along the way we stopped at as many national parks and monuments as I could link up before my family called mutiny and we ended up at Wall Drug. I already shared about our visit to the first national monument in the United States, now let me share with you my favorite entrance to a national park.
Before my story, let’s do a little history. Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a massive sculpture of 60 foot presidential faces carved into the granite of a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It took 14 years, from 1927 to 1941, and a lot of dynamite to create. It stands as an example of stunning engineering ability and a tribute to the history of our country. It is not without its controversy, however. From illegally using sacred ground of indigenous people to a KKK connected sculptor, its important to know the background behind some of our nation’s most iconic places. No matter how you feel about the memorial, it is most decidedly an example of what America stands for, good and bad.
Editor’s note: Did you know Mount Rushmore was completed on Halloween Day?
Any who, on to my story. To get to the national monument we not only had to make our way through normal summer traffic in the small town of Keystone that it neighbors, we had to navigate a sea of motorcycles because my brother timed his move with Sturgis. Still not entirely sure it wasn’t on purpose.
We walked from the parking lot and began up the pavement toward the entrance. I think my sister had asked my son and niece to hop up on this boulder for pictures, you can see how excited they were about it…
As we walked up onto the courtyard, we were greeted with the large concrete passage that begins the Avenue of Flags. The Avenue of Flags was added in the 1990s as part of an expansion to accommodate more visitors to the park by the suggestion of a visitor.
It allows for meandering before you reach the monument in the event there are long lines. Despite the crowds, we didn’t fee like we had to wade through a mob. As we grew closer to the monument, we could see columns with flags branching out of them and wondered what we would find.
Each column held the name of a state, territory, district or commonwealth, 56 in total. They are in alphabetical order and shared the date each was admitted to the union.
What I loved most about this entrance was that it would be easy to just walk up to Mount Rushmore and be in awe of its grandiose nature, marveling at its workmanship and scale without any perspective on what it was meant to represent. The Avenue of Flags gave us pause to reflect on the parts our country is made up of and the time it took to become what it is today.
Here we are standing before the memorial in all its glory. I still remember how it felt to finally visit Mount Rushmore in person after seeing in pictures for so many years. And to share it with my son made it even more special!
Have you been to Mount Rushmore and walked the Avenue of Flags? Did you find your state? I encourage you to find out more and make plans for a visit of your very own!
This post was written in one hour for the #naturewritingchallenge. Check out Twitter to learn more or see my other posts from the challenge here. You can learn more about the history of Mount Rushmore on the NPS website or in articles such as this.
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