Deadwood and Mt Rushmore at Night, South Dakota

We leave Devils Tower KOA and take off toward Deadwood, South Dakota.

Our drive to Deadwood includes a drive on the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, where we stop by a waterfall for lunch in the 5ver. The drive is nice, but after all the beautiful scenery that we've seen the last few weeks this scenic byway is nothing special.

We stop in Deadwood and look at their visitor center and walk around town. The entire town is a historical landmark and some of the restored old buildings have really interesting architecture.

But the restoration of the town has been financed by gambling, so almost every building appears to be a casino of some sort. I guess it is appropriate for a town of Deadwood's reputation to be financed by casinos, but there's not much to do there except gambling, so we don't spend much time there.

We continue our scenic drive to the Hill City/Mt Rushmore KOA. It is a huge campground! Check-in is fairly quick and we get a nice campsite in the back of the campground near the national forest, near the tenting and cabin area. We set up, relax a little, have dinner, and then head down the road to view the Mt Rushmore evening program. We first look at the museum and the visitor center's movie.

Each evening in the summer Mt Rushmore National Memorial has a special program with a slide show and special night lighting of the mountain. The program is very patriotic. It's nice, but borders on being a glorified tourist trap.