Greetings from Mount Rushmore National Memorial

During my 1971 solo bicycling trip from southern Michigan to the Pacific Northwest Coast at Seattle, WA, my route took me to southwestern South Dakota. So close to Mount Rushmore, I was invited to share a ride to the elevated visitor center by a couple of summer tourists and their two children in a VW van one sun-drenched mid-afternoon. There, we visited the center and toured the grounds and walked a trail or two, affording a closer or better view of the sculptured rock faces of the four past presidents. By late afternoon or early evening, the family decided to drive back down the access road to locate a campground for the night. I thought about their invitation to continue traveling with them but decided to find an out-of-the-way location to spend the night. This plan enabled me to photograph the sunrise on the presidential faces the following morning. Waking to the toe of a NPS ranger’s boot in my side was a shocking surprise. After admonishing me for trespassing in the national monument, he recommended my swift departure to avoid a trespass citation. Needless to say, I complied after thanking him for the opportune wake-up call and the ability to capture the image I’d imagined bathed in the low-angle early morning sunlight. I still remain grateful. He was only doing his job. God Bless the men and women of our vital National Park Service!

Sincerely,
James