Seeing Mount Rushmore empty

On a road trip to some national monuments and national parks, I stayed at the first campsite outside of the entrance to Mount Rushmore. After making time to visit this national memorial one afternoon, my fellow travel partner and I decided to wake up very early the next day to go back and see it without the crowds. The opening hours are from 5 AM to 11 PM daily.

This is the Avenue of Flags, a walkway leading up to the monument that displays 56 flags; The flags represent the 50 states, one district, three territories, and two commonwealths of the United States. As you can see, the monument is in the background.

We came here the day before and the area was packed, so seeing it completely empty like this was surreal. There weren’t even any park rangers or staff.

This is Grand View Terrace, a closer up view of the presidents. This is probably the most photographed part of the park, as it displays the most popular view of the monument. Usually, there are plenty of people here gathering around and taking pictures.

In 1923, Doane Robinson came up with the idea to build Mount Rushmore to encourage tourism in South Dakota. The following year, Robinson contacted a sculptor named Gutzon Borglum to travel to South Dakota to make sure that the memorial could be created. With the help of others as well, Borglum made the massive granite sculpture’s design and it was created in a mountain range known as the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota.

From left to right, the presidents sculpted are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. These presidents were chosen by Borglum because in his opinion, they represented the events in United States history that were of paramount significance.

Mount Rushmore was sculpted by the use of dynamite followed by honeycombing, which is a process that involves drilling holes close together and then removing small pieces by hand. Approximately 410,000 tons of rock were blown up off the mountain. That is 820 million pounds of rock!

There is a trail you can walk called the Presidential Trail, which allows you to get a closer look at the sculpture from below. It is 0.6 miles long and has 422 stairs. Since it was so early, we were the only ones out on the trail.

On the trail, there is a small cave/tunnel that you can walk into and get a good glimpse of the side of the sculpture with George Washington.

There is a small crack in the top of the rock that makes for a nice photograph of George Washington from below. When you’re in the cave, you can partially see Abraham Lincoln to the right too.

The trail is very well kept, and not only does it have great views of Mount Rushmore, but there is also a nice view of the black hills. Plus, we got to see the sunrise! It was a peaceful morning out on the trail.

Here is the view of the presidents from the Presidential Trail. As previously mentioned, you get a good view of the sculpture from below.

This is a perspective of the Grand View Terrace from the Presidential Trail. On the first floor below the terrace, there is a visitor center with a museum and a 14 minute video that explains the methods that were used in carving Mount Rushmore. It’s an area worth checking out for additional insight to the memorial.

This is what the monument looks like in the early morning as it gets hit by the sunrise. It gives the rock a unique, orange kind of coloring in comparison to seeing it later in the day.

(As a fun fact, part of the reason why Gutzon Borglum ultimately chose this location for the sculpture was because of its southeast positioning, giving it good exposure to the sun.)

Here is the monument five hours later on the same day. Seeing the contrast in the volume of people, it almost felt like walking around there in the dark with nobody around was a dream. It’s amazing what a difference five hours makes!

If you’re willing to spend some additional time at Mount Rushmore, check out the worthwhile self-guided audio tours. You hold a speaker as you walk around the park and listen to facts and history about the monument and its creation. It starts at the Avenue of Flags and walk through the entire Presidential Trail, looping around the park.

Whether you check out Mount Rushmore very early in the morning when it’s empty or in the middle of the day (or both), spending time at this historical monument allowed me to learn a lot I had not known about.