A behind-the-heads look at Rushmore
By
Dan Daly • Jun 28th, 2008 • Category: Uncategorized
A month ago, I wrote about accompanying a group of travel writers to the top of Mount Rushmore. They were members of the Society of American Travel Writers, and they were in Rapid City for the SATW’s Central States Chapter conference.
One of them, Malecia El-Amin of the Dallas Morning News, has filed a very well-written story about her trip to the top.
If you’d like to see the story yourself, check out THIS LINK.
She writes about following in the footsteps of Rushmore’s carvers, and her sense of awe for what they accomplished. She also writes about the tricky rock-hopping, bushwhacking and pine-needle surfing that is goes with the hike.
That’s one reason why the public isn’t allowed to climb to the top of Mount Rushmore. It’s not easy to get up there.
Dan Daly is an on-again, off-again Black Hills resident since 1978. The Aberdeen native hit the road after high school, building houses in Boulder, working oil rigs on Colorado's Western Slope, delivering cars in California. In Wyoming and Idaho, he worked as a newspaper journalist. But the Black Hills kept luring him back. For 18 years, he wrote for the Rapid City Journal. The job gave him a chance to see the Hills from atop Mount Rushmore and the bottom of the Homestake Mine. Whenever possible, Dan grabs his dog Kody and heads to the Hills. These days, he's perfecting the art of low-impact backpacking: hike two hours to a scenic spot, break out the wine, cook up the pasta, watch the sunset and fall asleep under the stars.
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