Mt. Rushmore National Memorial Website
Pit Stop: This isn't a National Park, but it's a big enough pit stop to get its own write up.
Gutzon Borglum, son of a Danish immigrant, was picked to carve the Black Hills sculpture that would become known as Mt. Rushmore. He started carving the mountain in 1927 and congress said the work was done in 1941. Gutzon had died a few months earlier and they pretty much didn't want to spend anymore money on it with WWII looming.
In addition to the museum and gift shop you can take a walk on the presidential trail that goes by the sculptor's studio and up close to the base of the mountain for some different views of the monument.
This is what the completed memorial was supposed to look like
Pit Stop #2: The Crazy Horse Memorial is less than half an hour from Mt. Rushmore. It's been under construction since 1948 and only his face is finished. I don't expect to see it finished in my lifetime, but if they ever do finish, it will be 641 feet long and 563 feet high. For comparison each head on Mt. Rushmore is about 60 feet tall and Crazy Horse's is almost 90 feet tall.
