We made our way through the gorgeous windy Ponderosa lined roads to Mount Rushmore. The faces are visable as soon as you come around a bend and my first thought was “Huh. They are whiter than the surrounding rock”. Then, “they seem smaller than I thought they would be”. As we got closer and closer the magnitude of this project, the faces, and the place came more into focus.
All four faces are quite exquisite. They seem perfectly sculpted, which seems like an amazing task. Mom and I walked the whole loop, seeing them from all of the observation spots. At one point, a guy with a group of people lied on the deck of an observation point to get just the right angle to shoot a couple from his group. When he was done I said “Hey, since you’re down there would you mind taking my photo?” So, he did, and as I walked away, another person asked him “Hey, since you’re down there…” I suspect he could be there all day!
The artist’s studio along the route has a sculpture of the original idea, which includes shoulders and torso of the presidents in period clothing. I took a photo of it and when I showed it to Barb, I said “Not to take away from what we saw today … ” and when she saw the photo she said, “Ya, it kinda does.” The age old question of “when does the artist know the work of art is done” comes to mind?