After exiting Badlands, you end up right at Wall, South Dakota - home of Wall Drug Store... which has signs leading up to it for some 300 miles. So I stopped in quickly for a snack. It's very big and has a few restaurants, shops selling souvenirs and props like large animals you can take photos with.
I downed a sarsparilla (locally brewed) and hit the road, hoping to make it to Mt. Rushmore before they closed.... and before it rained. I fueled up on gas (again)... scared I'd be entering stretches where you worry about whether a station will have diesel.
The scenery changed from flat pprairie and grasslands to mountains and trees! After a drive that would have made me car sick if I weren't driving, I entered the Mt. Rushmore Monument... which is free, except for a hefty parking fee!! It's a short walk up from the parking lot to the monument. While it's a national landmark... I'm not sure it's something to go out of your way to see. If anything, spend more time in Badlands and skip Rushmore completely. Or maybe that's just me thinking it's not that different from Stone Mountain in Georgia, something I saw a lot of growing up. There was an evening show to light up the monument... however, I wasn't going to wait around 2 hours for it, so I hit the road.
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