Iron Mountain Road to Mount Rushmore

When we talked to the Custer State Park ranger on the day we arrived to the area, he gave us advice on the things we must do while we were here. He mentioned the three iconic drives that we simply must do. One was the wildlife loop that we did on the first evening. Another was Needles Eye Highway that we will do tomorrow. The third is the Iron Mountain Road that we will conquer today. We were on the road early, when stopping to see the flowers was easier without so much traffic.

A map along the road might help to picture where we are driving. We are on Highway 16A on the right hand side of the map. It starts in Custer State Park and winds itself into the Black Elk Wilderness.

Yesterday we hiked to the top of the tallest peak in South Dakota. That's Black Elk Peak in the blue distance on the left edge of the picture below. Today we are driving to the most famous peak in South Dakota. That's Mount Rushmore in the blue distance on the right side of the picture. If you remember, we could see the back side of Mount Rushmore when we stood at the top of Black Elk Peak. We're not sure of the name of the sloping green hill in the foreground. Let's just call it another of the black hills covered with pine trees that gives this southwest corner of South Dakota its name.

Iron Mountain Road is famous for its 314 curves and 114 switchbacks in just 17 miles of driving. Sometimes the road is so narrow, that the road is split into two one-way sections. That is the 2 splits that the sign mentions. Just so you know, if you get behind a mowing crew in those very narrow split sections, there is no room to pass them and you'll have a front row seat to the mowing show for the next thirty minutes. Ask us how we know.

Iron Mountain Road is also known for its 3 pigtails. What is that?!? On the GPS it is a tight 360-degree turn that does look like a pig's tail.

On the ground, it is a wooden bridge that loops right over itself. We were about to drive under the road that we just drove over.

Iron Mountain Road also has three tunnels that are one-lane wide. That's another reason to drive this road early in the day before traffic picks up and getting through these tunnels is trickier with more on-coming cars.

Yellow road signs warn drivers of the tunnels' dimensions. Let's just say that we can never drive Iron Mountain Road in our motor home.

The ranger told us that a Class C motor home (much smaller than ours) got stuck in one of the tunnels. It caused quite a traffic back-up since it took two hours for the tow truck to get it un-stuck.

These tunnels were strategically placed so that they frame Mount Rushmore as you drive through. We never did get a perfectly-framed picture of the four presidents because we always had another vehicle in the way, waiting to enter the tunnel from the other direction. The picture below is the best we could do, with the oncoming vehicle cropped out, and Mount Rushmore a blurry rock in the distance. It sure doesn't look like the postcard photo we saw at the visitor center!

Iron Mountain Road provides viewing stops that allow tourists to see the presidents from a distance without actually going to the national monument.

But of course, we had to make the trip to the national monument with the rest of the summer crowd. The good news is that it is free to visit; the bad news is that you must pay to park. But with Mark's senior pass, we got our parking spot for half price--$5.

Denisa took a picture of the flag entry, skimming over the heads of the hundreds of people in front of us who also came to see the four famous heads.

Most people made their way to the viewing platform for a head picture of the presidential heads.

It is a fun stop, and we understand why this is a popular place to visit for every first-time visitor to the Black Hills. It was the dream of Doane Robinson, who thought a larger-than-life stone carving would bring tourists to South Dakota. His plan was to turn the Cathedral Spires into statues of western figures like Buffalo Bill Cody and Sacagawea. But the rock sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, changed the plan to U.S. presidents. His reasoning was that it would draw visitors from all over the country--not just the west. Besides, the spires didn't provide strong enough rock to carve huge statues. So Borglum changed the location and the subject of this monumental carving.

A very well-done museum tells the story of the sculpting process. The faces were formed in clay in the studio, and then used as a model for taking the enlarged measurements to the mountain. It was an amazing process!

While most people stop at the viewing wall, a one-mile Presidential Trail Loop can take visitors even closer to Mount Rushmore.

It's not an easy walk because it includes 422 stairs. But it brings visitors to this platform that is the closest to the presidential heads.

From here, you can look up the noses of four of the most-loved presidents in the United States.

It also leads you to the artist studio, where the original sculpting was done. Mark was playing with the actual tools that were used to make this giant work of art. Because they found crevices and imperfections in the rock on Mount Rushmore as they worked, the clay sculpture in the studio had to be reworked nine different times. The picture below is of the final proto-type, at a 12-to-1 scale to the one on the mountain. Every inch of this clay prototype became of foot on Mount Rushmore. You might notice that the clay is more detailed than the finished product. When Borglum died in 1941, his son was hired to finish the sculpture. But the start of World War II stopped all art projects, and Mount Rushmore was deemed to be completed. George Washington never got his top coat, Jefferson never got his hand, and Lincoln never got his collar.

We stayed to listen to the twenty-minute ranger presentation to learn more about the Mount Rushmore sculpting process. From the studio we could see the finished sculpture through the window.

After our hike, we drove further down Iron Mountain Road. Another mile and around a couple more curves, we found a parking lot overlooked by a famous silhouette.

It's from here that tourists can get a profile view of George Washington on Mount Rushmore.

Then we turned the pickup around to make a stop in the closest town to Mount Rushmore. We had lunch in Keystone, South Dakota, and visited some of the free sites around town.

The Dahl Brothers started making chainsaw sculptures out of trees, and their business has grown to include stores in several different towns in the Black Hills. Recently, they've added larger-than-life sculptures like this Sasquatch. 

What Borglum did with a mountain, the Dahl Brothers do with trees. In fact, their outdoor store is right next to the Borglum Museum in Keystone. This little town includes fun family adventure parks and other museums, that we might need to explore one day with our grandchildren.

Until then, we were content to drive back down the 17 miles of Iron Mountain Road, with its 314 curves, 14 switch backs, 3 pigtails, 3 tunnels, 2 splits, and 4 presidents.