A Monument to Presidents

The monument is amazing.  It is a must see for every American.

My favorite president looks past Jefferson and Lincoln.

The wet granite showed streams of tears (and runny noses)

that soon disappeared in the drying breeze.

Our drive from Devil's Tower to Mt. Rushmore National Monument was relatively short when compared to the hundreds of miles we'd driven over the past few days.  The storm clouds were gathering as we left Wyoming, and by the time we crossed into South Dakota, the sky was much darker.  Undeterred, we continued to Mt. Rushmore, arriving around 3:00 p.m.  It looked more like 7:00 p.m. 

A few minutes after we parked (thankfully underground), the torrent began.   The downpour, combined with thunder and lightning, gave us pause, and in those few moments of hesitation, hail began pounding the earth.  It was the largest hail I'd ever seen, about the size of walnuts.  We took shelter in our car, staying warm while listening to "The Best of Lynyrd Skynyrd." 

I'd never seen hail so large.

At last the tempest subsided, and we ventured out, moving briskly through mist and cool air smelling delightfully of spruce and fir, until we reached the visitor center.  I looked at the famous faces carved into the hard granite, the products of dynamite and ingenious planning, and thought I saw streams of tears.  These quickly disappeared once the pink and black granite dried.



Nope, this wasn't staged.
A bird's nest fell from a nearby pine
 and hail collected, looking like translucent eggs.