Day #4 in South Dakota and Nebraska

The Monument always makes an impression, especially when you first catch a glimpse of it...takes your breath away.

They've made a lot of nice improvements to the approach and visitors center and amphitheater since our visit in 1988.

Silhouette of Washington.

They've also upgraded the signs for "Rushmore Cave." The kids will remember the plethora of signage that finally sucked us in for a visit in 1988. The barrage is still there! We saw 4 or 5 signs in less than the 1/2 a mile to the turn-off...which we didn't take. We didn't see as many from further out though. Couldn't resist the photo.

The Crazy Horse Memorial that honors the North American Indian doesn't seem to be much further along than when we were here last time...I'm sure funding is an issue.

Herd of buffalo (or bison if you want to be precise, but we don't). The explanation is a long but interesting one!

We decided to explore Wind Cave...about 50 miles from Jewel Cave that we visited before.

The tiny, natural breathing entrance to the cave.

We went on a 1-1/4 hour tour of a small fraction of the cave and spent some time in the Visitor's Center. It is the 4th longest cave in the world (131 miles discovered so far) and yet all of the known passages lie beneath a one square mile area of land, making it very complex and layered.

Studies indicate that perhaps only 10% of it has been found!

Very interesting, intricate ceiling. Our photos in the cave were somewhat disappointing...didn't do it justice.

There were no stalactites or stalagmites in this cave...very little water...but it is known for its rare and abundant formation called boxwork. It kinda resembled stone egg cartons or cubby holes in a post office.

Next it was onto Nebraska, the land of silos and the most amazing corn fields ever. You could say that Nebraska has the "corner on corn!" We never got tired of looking at the tall, unending, perfect stalks of corn.

We also saw a lot of windmills throughout the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas. This is one of my favorite photos of the trip.

Of course we had to visit the Toadstool Geologic Park...a 14-mile dirt road (one way) out into the boonies of the Nebraska Badlands.

At first it didn't look like much and we were ridiculing ourselves for the out-of-the-way jaunt. But once we were back in the hills with our 9-points-of-interest guide brochure, we found it to be the most fun hike of the trip. We saw fossils and fun-fun-fun formations in this place where a broad and shallow river once ran. I tried to whittle down the number of photos to share on this blog, but it was hard. I hope you can get an idea of how interesting it was.

Big sideways toadstools.

A toadstool nursery. In some ways this area reminded us of Goblin Valley, only in chalky white instead of orange red. The sandstone was sorta fragile, but it was neat to walk up and see it at close range.

At the end of the day we discovered Carhenge near Alliance, Nebraska, not quite in the same league as Stonehenge in England, but another creative idea made by man. We are not sure if it has been used for religious purposes either.