Well, the day arrived, and we were met with the perfect combination of clouds and sun, even though the forecast had been predicting a 30% change of rain. It was going to be a bit warm, but we figured in the forest it would be cooler, and we were right. After breakfast, we walked down to the water trough, then to the horse trailer just a few more steps away, and got saddled up, booted (with my new Cavallos that I had picked up at the post office in Keystone on the way in, having lost one in the Badlands earlier in the month), and on our way by 11:00. We headed up the Centennial Trail (the same one we travelled on up in Ft. Meade), climbing through some rough rocky terrain (so happy we had boots on!) until it flattened out a bit on the other side and we enjoyed some long stretches of fairly easy trail where we trotted quite a bit, through narrow meadows, across brooks and streams, climbed a few more rocky stretches, until we reached the well-marked turnoff to the Mt. Rushmore monument, crossing into national park boundary where the trail got very challenging, lots of rough stretches of rocky trail, until we arrived at the end of the line, where we met up with a half dozen other riders, including the four women parked next to us at the horse camp. With Hubby staying behind, I walked over to the monument for a closer look, wandering through the visitor center and taking lots of pictures so Hubby can enjoy them later. I think I'll suggest we drive back here so that Hubby can see it in person. We've been here once before, very briefly, back in '87 or '88, and it seems they've added a lot since then (if memory serves, which it may not : -), and I know he'd enjoy the extensive exhibits on how they build it. They were also playing a recording of the MLK "I have a dream" speech, since it's the 50th anniversary this week, which added a certain atmosphere. After wandering around a bit, I walked back to the trailhead, where Hubby and I had a quick lunch, took a few pix with Mt. Rushmore in the background, then headed back up the trail the way we had come. With several stops for well-deserved grazing on some clover along the trail, we made it back by about 4:00, dumped a few buckets of cool trough water on the horses to cool them off, got everyone settled in for the night, enjoyed two movies back to back before heading off to bed.
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