What to bring?
Stroller?
Yes
Restrooms
Located in Visitors Center
Crazy Horse, located in the Black Hills National Forrest, was not originally in our plans. After seeing several signs for it and realizing it was only about 15 minutes past Mount Rushmore, we decided to add it to our afternoon. My husband had went as a child and was curious to see the progress they had made on the monument in the last 20 years. (Back to that a little later)
When we pulled up to the gate, it was $35 per vehicle and was not included in our America The Beautiful pass due to it being on Indian land. When we made it to the parking lot, we realized there was a huge visitors center that had a far away overlook to the Crazy Horse Monument. We were pretty disappointed that we couldn’t get any closer without paying an additional fee to take a bus that was closer to the base. We opted out and decided to check out what the visitors center and museum had to offer.
The museum had a cool teepee that you could enter, which really excited our toddler! There was more Native American clothing, artwork, and artifacts to check out. As you end the museum, there is a gift shop, boardwalk area to view Crazy Horse, cafe for snacks, & a walkthrough timeline. The biggest thrill was that you could grab a rock to keep from where they blasted to create the monument.
As far as progress to the monument, which I mentioned earlier, there basically was none. The timeline confirmed that it was pretty much the same as it was twenty years ago when my husband visited as a child. I guess that’s where our dissapointment came from. The photo above shows a replica of what the monument is supposed to be at completion and you can see the actual monument in the background, showing the progress after 73 years. After seeing the amazing sculpture work at Mt. Rushmore, half of Crazy Horse’s face was a little anticlimactic.
On our way out though, they announced a Native American hoop dance was about to begin, so we decided to stay for that for a bit. It was fun to watch but we didn’t last long in 100 degree heat. After about 30 minutes, we’d conquered the whole place and hit the road for Wyoming!
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