Chief Crazy Horse Monument

Here we all are at the Chief Crazy Horse Welcome Center in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

See the monument in progress after 65 years of construction. We all decided to come back in 20 years to see the changes.

The model in the foreground, is  a 1/34th scale model. The mountain carving of Chief Crazy Horse's head in 87 feet high. The first blast took place in 1948.

This picture shows a chalked out plan for the monument construction.

Inside the museum is this painting of the artist, Korczak Ziokowski and his wife. They have 10 children. Ruth and several of the children still carry on the construction of the monument. It will take several generations to finish.

One of his many sculptures, and my favorite, is "Fighting Stallions".

Mount Rushmore

Here we all are in front of the Shrine of the Black Hills. It was a beautiful day.

As we got closer, it was even more awesome.

We came to a small cave and looked up and saw this site between the crevice.

Closer yet. We were just below them looking up.

Here's the master-mind behind these magnificent sculptures. His name is Gutzon Borglum. He died before the monument was completed, but his son took over to finish. 

This is what the mountain wall looked like before they started working on it. It took 14 years to complete. Due to weather conditions, they were only able to work a few months out of the year.

Plaster models were made, sized at a 1:12 ratio. One inch to 1 foot. George Washington's head, from his forehead to his chin, is 60 feet.

CORRECTION

Joe checked out my blog and pointed out that I said that Deadwood was in Wyoming, but we all know that Deadwood is in South Dakota. Thanks for letting me know about my mistake, Joe.

Great Falls, Mt and Devil's Tower, Wy

Montana is a beautiful state. We saw beautiful farmlands, but other areas were very "bumpy" consisting of small rolling hills all over.

We came across an area in Montana where there were hundreds of giant windmills. They were an awesome sight.

We stopped over Billings, Montana which is down below this huge cliff.

This was our first view of Devil's Tower. It gets more awesome the closer you get.

Here we all are at the base of Devil's Tower. It was quite a trek up this far, but Joe and Jack ventured farther up the base. Joe brought me back a beautiful stone since I like to collect a stone from all the places we visit.

There's a lot of history to this National Monument. As a matter of fact, it was the very first National Monument thanks to President Theodore Roosevelt.

According to the legend, seven sisters were playing when a bear started chasing them. They came upon a stump of a great tree and it spoke to them. It told them to climb him and when they did, it began to rise into the air. The bear could not reach them, but scored the bark with his claws. The seven sisters became the stars in the Big Dipper.

Coming back from the rock, we came across a field with hundreds of prairie dogs. They popped their heads up and down from their burrows in the dirt. We stopped and watched them for a while. They liked to pose for us.

 

Our next stop was the town of Deadwood. It's famous for Wild Bill Hickok and others. The streets had one casino after another. We tried most of them. Bob did get a Royal Flush in one of them.

One Casino was Mustang Sally's.

This is the very spot where Wild Bill Hickok's assassin was arrested. Right on Main Street Deadwood, Wyoming. It is a fun little town.

Family get togehter and Teresa's Birthday Party

Today we all had a feast. Joe grilled ribs, Jack and Shin roasted veggies on their grill and Shin made her wonderful biscuits. Sue made delicious green beans with ham and Bob and Sally made potato salad and cheesy cauliflower.

 

After we filled our tummies, we had birthday cake to celebrate Joe's daughter, Teresa's 43rd birthday via Skype. The cake was delicious.

 

Jasper National Park and Banff National Park

We stayed at a KOA campground near Jasper, Alberta. As we were leaving we spotted several elk along the roadside.

We came upon several cars parked and people with their cameras. As we went by I spotted the attraction. There were 2 moose in the rear of this beautiful lake. They just look like dots, but they were there.

 

We took the "Icefield Parkway" to Calgary. There were literally hundreds of glaciers on the Columbia Icefield. This area was called the finger glaciers.

Some of the largest glaciers in Canada were on the Icefield Parkway.

I took so many pictures. This glacier was so beautiful.

Another one of the finger glaciers. This one had buses driving on it loaded with tourists.

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of Bow Lake. I tried to catch the reflection. It was awesome to see.

On our way from Lake Louise and Banff, there were several of these tunnels. They were constructed of stone, sod and trees. There purpose is to allow animals to cross over. Eleven species of large animals use these passes.

Sterart, Yukon Territory and Hyder, Alaska.

We saw many glaciers and many beautiful waterfalls on our way to Stewart.

Just 3 miles from Stewart, YT, is an little town of Hyder, Alaska. It's famous for bear sightings on Fish Creek. It was said that 1/3 of all the bears in Alaska live in this area. The town itself is almost a ghost town, but we did see a nice little general store, but it was closed the day we went there.

This is Fish Creek. It's hard to see in this picture, but the creek was loaded with "pink" salmon spawning. The salmon have an interesting life cycle. They return from their life in the ocean, to spawn in fresh water where they were born. They soon die after they lay their eggs. It was kind of sad to see all these beautiful fish, knowing they were going to die soon. We had hoped to catch the bears feeding on the fish, but none came out this morning.

Here's the platform we stood to watch for bears. It was a cold and rainy day.

We didn't see any bears in Fish Creek, but spotted one along the roadside heading out.

Skagway, Alaska

 

We saw many, many beautiful waterfalls on the way to Skagway, but this one had a pipeline to the right of it. There was a turbine at the end of the pipe that made electricity for the town of Skagway.

There was quite a mist coming off this waterfall. Reminded us of the "Maid of the Mist" in Niagara Falls.

A weird mountain seen on the way to Skagway.

 

Here's the crew except for Bob taking the picture in front of the famous Red Onion Saloon in Skagway.

Come visit us inside the Red Onion. Adults only!!

Bob kinda liked our barmaid. She had to hold his hand down as you can see in the picture. Naughty boy!

Joe, the great tipper that he is, felt obligated to give the tip since he bought our drinks.

Suzy and Sally sloshed down the special drink of the Red Onion, called the "Duck Fart". It looked more like duck doodoo, but tasted pretty good.

Bob was pretty proud with his new hat he bought in Skagway. It's waterproof.

All aboard the "Snow Pass".

Bob and Sally stopped for a picture with this statue in Skagway.

Here are Bob and Jack by the "snow blower" on the Snow Pass train.

 

We really enjoyed our day in Skagway. There was a cruise ship with it's many passengers who shared the town with us. It's a quaint town. We ate lunch there. Most of us had a delicious Reuben sandwich with a huge pile of French fries. Notice the glaciers in the background.