Today we went to Custer State Park near Rapid City, South Dakota. Our main purpose in going there was to hunt wildlife–with cameras, of course. I hoped most of all to see a bighorn sheep, but there were plenty of other wildlife to be seen too. We saw bison up close, and from a distance we saw deer and pronghorn antelope. We also saw some human-desensitized, attention (and food)-hungry burros, which had been part of a park program long ago and had been released into the park when the program was discontinued. These burros like to travel in herds, coming up to cars (and even into cars, as Andrew and Melanie discovered) in search of food or whatever else they can find. A burro came so close to our van that it steamed up the driver-side window with its breath. But the burro that visited Andrew and Melanie (who had their windows down) put his head inside their car. (For more details, check their blog.) But alas! no bighorn sheep were sighted in Custer.

The most amazing part of Custer was the section called “Needles.” The Needles are rock formations that are very thin and tall, just like, well, needles. One particular section, called Cathedral Spires, is considered so unique that it’s been declared a national landmark. God carved those cathedral spires to glorify Himself–it’s too bad that many manmade cathedrals are places where He is not glorified.

After Custer, on we went to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Carved on the mountain face are the heads of four presidents–Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln. They are amazing. Because it was rather rainy today, the presidents almost looked as though they were crying. The monument was created mostly using very specific charges of dynamite to blast away the mountain and form the heads. It truly is a timeless testament not only to the presidents honored on the mountain, but also to the sculptor, and to the men who helped him blast the mountain into a monument.

See the gallery for pictures.