Over the holiday weekend I added another state to my list of states visited, South Dakota, which takes the count to 40. We left after work on Thursday and drove up toward the southwestern part of the state driving through some pretty good storms along the way. We arrived at the Crooked Creek Campground around 11pm and set up our tents in the drizzling rain. We went to bed that night hoping for some sun the following day.

Unfortunately, when we awoke on Friday morning it was still raining. But the worst part was that it never really stopped. We ate a quick breakfast at the campground, packed our cars full of the necessary supplies for a long day and drove off toward Mount Rushmore. We arrived before 10am and found that thousands of people were already there and there was a huge line to get into the parking lots. One of our cars decided to skip the line and found a spot along the road toward the park, where the other two cars later joined.

After standing around in the rain for a couple of hours, the rain picked up and forced all of us inside of the cars to wait it out. Once it finally settled a little, a few of us headed down the road to buy a couple of tarps so that we could attempt to stay dry outside. We put the tarps up between a couple of cars and a couple of trees and waited. Waited for what? The fireworks over the heads of Mount Rushmore, supposedly one of the best fireworks displays around.

At one point the rain died down enough for a few of us to take a hike up the road 1.3 miles to the entrance of Mount Rushmore. We walked up to the main gates, snapped a few pictures, and eventually wound our way back down to the cars. In hindsight I’m glad I decided to take this walk, as some of the members in our group never saw the faces. Later in the evening when it was nearing the time for the fireworks display, we all headed back up toward the entrance area, just in time to watch a thick fog roll into the area.

We waited with our fingers crossed that something would happen, but the fog just got worse and worse. The fireworks were supposed to start at 9:20pm. At that time they lit off a test firework, which provided a bang and a flash of light in the dense fog. We were all thinking that the display was either going to be delayed or canceled completely. Within fifteen minutes an announcement was made that the display was going to start soon. It was great to hear those words, but we all knew that it was going to be very disappointing with the fog so thick that the faces of Mount Rushmore could not even be seen.

And that’s exactly what happened. The fireworks were shot off, but all that happened was that the fog became lit up in various colors. At one point the fog cleared just enough so we could actually see parts of a few fireworks explosions, but still no faces ever became visible. The crowd was very disappointed, but there was little that could have been done. I read that if they would have waited until 10:20 that they would have been canceled completely due to high winds. And there was no option of postponing until the next day, so that did what had to be done. At least we were able to gather with friends and celebrate.

South Dakota on Dwellable