Mount Rushmore, Spearfish Canyon & Devils Tower

Day-3: Mount Rushmore National Monument, Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway and Devil’s Tower National Monument

As we had reached late the other day, we woke up a bit late. It was an hour and 30 mins drive from hotel to Mount Rushmore National Monument so we started around 8:30 AM.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial Entrance

One can see side view of the monument a mile before the park entrance.

There was a $10 entry fee for the park. We went around the park to take lot of pictures, though it was really hot outside.

We enjoyed some ice cream and bought souvenir before leaving.

We left from Mount Rushmore around 1 PM and took a detour to the scenic drive of Spearfish Canyon. The view was not so great but was still worth spending some time around as there were couple of waterfalls.

We then continued our drive back from Spearfish canyon towards highway and took another detour to Devil’s Tower National Monument, Wyoming.

We reached the monument around 5:30 PM. It was extremely windy, so we just clicked some pictures from outside and ran to the trading post to buy a souvenir.

Devil’s Tower National Monument Entrance

Finally around 6:30 PM we started from Devil’s Tower to our next stay at Cody Cowboy Village, Wyoming which was around 5 hour 15 mins drive. The route that passes by the Bighorn Forest has lot of curves and elevations. It was pitch dark and foggy outside. Driving through that road was a nightmare, as we were not able to see anything beyond 100 ft. One needs to be cautious while driving here. We reached the destination around 12 AM.

As the name suggests, Cody Cowboy Village was a beautiful village like place with wooden cabins.

The Yellowstone National park has multiple entrances. There were announcements about closure of North entrance. Also West entrance was very far from Devil’s Tower or Mount Rushmore National Monument. Hence we had planned to enter the park from its east entrance as it was open until early November. This hotel is near to the east entrance of the park.