បាត់ដំបង: Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower

April 26th: I got up early and headed to Mount Rushmore around 8 am which is only 2 miles from the motel I stayed at.

The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. I finally got to see this famous giant sculpture of presidents' faces in person and was impressed by it.

After Rushmore, I headed to Devils Tower which is about 2 and a half hours away. As soon as I got close to Devils Tower, it drizzled down. It's amazing to see this giant of rock column stand out among other mountains. According to the information, the rock was formed 50 million years ago by magma. On the top, it was the size of a football field where ants, rats and an occational snake can be found.

Two climbers almost made their way to the top. I wish I had a zoom lens.

Then I continued my way to Yellowstone. I decided to take US-16 highway recommended by the sign on the road that I would get the most scenic view and get there fastest.

The guy at the Information Center adviced me to take I-90 instead because US-16 is a winding road going up the mountains and it might snow up there. But I decided to take US-16 anyway because I wanted the best scenic view while driving. As I drove up the mountain, it got more and more cloudy. Then it showered. Then it turned to be slightly snow. This didn't look good. My rear-wheel drive car would just make things worse if it snowed more later on the winding road. My instinct told me to turn back and forget the scenic view. So I did and took I-90.

It's snowing slightly on the mountain.

Then an hour and a half later I saw another route to Yellowstone, US-14. It's still a winding road going up and down the mountains but the condition was much better than US-16. It looked sunny over the mountains this time. I took US-14 and it was a beautiful ride all the way. On mountain tops, there're still snow covered the ground but the pine trees were all green.