Our Hotel in Rapid City, South Dakota which is around 25 miles South of Sturgis & there are Harley Davidson motorbikes everywhere, our plan today was to visit Crazy Horse & Mount Rushmore before visiting Craig & Linda at Sturgis itself.
As we ride through Hill City you can see the amount of bikes, there are 500,000 in the area so everywhere is rammed.
The Crazy Horse memorial has been under construction since 1948 by Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziokowski & his family after he died in 1982.
This is huge at 195m wide by 172m high compared to the Presidents of Mount Rushmore at 18m high.
In the visitor centre is a 1/34th scale model used by the artist.
We take a scenic route through the Custer State Park with sections of the road only large enough for one vehicle or bike.
At the Needles more bikes!
At Mount Rushmore the light is in the wrong direction to get a good picture of the 4 Presidents so here is the profile shot of George Washington, it's difficult to believe that these sculptures are only on tenth the size of Crazy Horse!
The ride today has taken a lot longer than expected partly due to the traffic & as we have no accommodation booked in the area we unfortunately have to abort the visit to Sturgis & decide to head away from the area.
The Sturgis influence stretches for over 100 miles with inflated Motel costs & it's not until Glendoe, Wyoming that we find something reasonable.
We also catch our first rain for over 2 months with a short sharp shower as we pass through Lusk, fortunately we were prepared!
Passing through Laramie where I get a speeding warning from the local Police we are now heading back to Utah & plan a route that takes us along the Snowy Range Scenic Byway starting at Centennial where we visit the local museum.
This road does not disappoint and we manage to avoid the rain, at last the temperature is also at a more comfortable level.
Did you know that there are snow covered mountains in Wyoming in August!, the road passes a height over 2500m so it is to be expected.
We spend the night in the great little town of Saratoga and chat over a beer to a crop spraying pilot, he is here spraying mosquitoes as the local ranchers are so plagued with them, good for him!!
As we ride through Hill City you can see the amount of bikes, there are 500,000 in the area so everywhere is rammed.
The Crazy Horse memorial has been under construction since 1948 by Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziokowski & his family after he died in 1982.
This is huge at 195m wide by 172m high compared to the Presidents of Mount Rushmore at 18m high.
In the visitor centre is a 1/34th scale model used by the artist.
We take a scenic route through the Custer State Park with sections of the road only large enough for one vehicle or bike.
At the Needles more bikes!
At Mount Rushmore the light is in the wrong direction to get a good picture of the 4 Presidents so here is the profile shot of George Washington, it's difficult to believe that these sculptures are only on tenth the size of Crazy Horse!
The ride today has taken a lot longer than expected partly due to the traffic & as we have no accommodation booked in the area we unfortunately have to abort the visit to Sturgis & decide to head away from the area.
The Sturgis influence stretches for over 100 miles with inflated Motel costs & it's not until Glendoe, Wyoming that we find something reasonable.
We also catch our first rain for over 2 months with a short sharp shower as we pass through Lusk, fortunately we were prepared!
Passing through Laramie where I get a speeding warning from the local Police we are now heading back to Utah & plan a route that takes us along the Snowy Range Scenic Byway starting at Centennial where we visit the local museum.
This road does not disappoint and we manage to avoid the rain, at last the temperature is also at a more comfortable level.
Did you know that there are snow covered mountains in Wyoming in August!, the road passes a height over 2500m so it is to be expected.
We spend the night in the great little town of Saratoga and chat over a beer to a crop spraying pilot, he is here spraying mosquitoes as the local ranchers are so plagued with them, good for him!!
I'm going to have to go have a look , pics look fantastic
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