Mount rushmore and tensleep canyon

As I mentioned before, we couldn't resist the urge to visit Mount Rushmore. I don't know if it was a brief moment of patriotism or just plain old curiosity (I'd go with the latter). First let me say that the area leading up to the monument, including the town of Keystone just outside, is like a mini version of .Gatlinberg, TN. That is not a compliment by the way. It is full of the worst things about America--t-shirt shops, fudge, and exploitation of wild animals. After getting through all that, I was pissed off to find that our $80 National Parks pass is no good in Mt. Rushmore! F you NPS! Anyway, we had driven all that way, so we paid the $10 "concessionaire parking" and went in. Yep there were the heads of Ex presidents. The work is amazing, but even more fun was this guy we met there. He was a photographer, Tom Storm (www.tomstorm.net), and his whole gig is getting pictures of cool places in the reflections of soap bubbles. So Isaac and I spent some time blowing bubbles for Tom. We certainly attracted a lot of attention and Tom says we'll be part of his video blog in a few days. Blowing bubbles is hard when you're under pressure like that!

South Dakota was beautiful, but we soon returned to WY. We couldn't resist the draw of climbing in Tensleep Canyon at least one day, so we camped there for the night and had a good day climbing today. Sorry no pics. That place is just so massive with tons of incredible climbing, its hard to capture it all.

Incidently, this couple we met from Rapid City told us that they used to allow climbing at Rushmore until 2 years ago when Green Peace snuck up there and unfurled a huge banner encouraging Obama to stop global warming. I'd never heard of it, but there is a pretty funny video on their website. Too bad, the rock is pretty cool there.

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