Mt Rushmore Fun

   Well I am in the middle of the week long travel back to school and it has been fun. My mother and I have driven my car 1,700 miles and gone through some amazing places on the 70 and through Rapid City, SD.

    To start off I wanted to express that driving through the Rocky Mountains is something that everyone should do at least once in their life. There is such a beauty there in the mountain side and rock formations that really humble your spirit. While driving through this amazing landscape it was hard not to look for new lines that could be established on the side of the Interstate. If only I owned the trad equipment to actually send the lines I saw. But I couldn't stop and the fear of potential fines also was on my mind.

   Going up through Denver, CO, on the I-25 was awesome. The destination; Mt. Rushmore and the South Seas. We took a multitude of back roads in order to get to the place we were camping for the night which we set up camp just before the first storm cell came through.

   After a less than restful night we were off to Mt. Rushmore. When we arrived the mountain was

Dirty Ernie, can't see it but the tops about 1' wide

covered by fog and the day seemed to be taking a turn for the worst with the spraying rain. After falling for the tourist trap of the bookstores and gift shops we got outside and the fog had moved enough that the faces were visible. Still there wasn't much hope of getting to climb that day.

   Well we went and walked the trail that brings you closest to the faces. When we got back to the top of the trail the sun had finally started to come out and there was no more bad weather to come; for now. So we set off to find a couple of climbing areas.

   Originally I wanted to send a 100+ ft. route in the Magna Carta climbing area. But finding the actual turnout to get to this area was nearly impossible. After about 10 minutes of confusion and heated arguments we decided to just pull into, the marked, Wrinkled Rock Climbers Campground.

Unnamed boulder problem rock

   This place is without a doubt the easiest and best developed place to camp and go climb the South Seas area if you are planning a trip. Also it is a free camping area which makes everything better when you can sleep at the crag.

   For the climbing adventure of the day I decided to just walk the trail to the South Seas area and climb the first sport route I find. I ended up at bull rock which was about 150 yards from where I parked. I climbed the route Dirty Ernie a 45', 5.8 sport route which turned out to be a perfect climb to just have some fun climbing in this historic area.

   After climbing I went and established some boulder routes that I still need to put out on Mountainproject.com. But I still need to think of names for the four I found. Being right off the trail these routes are V2's but at Wrinkled Rock there was a great V4 sloper problem that I had fun sending. There was a great heel hook on it to get the right hand bump right before the top.

   Well I am having fun on this adventure back to school. Next stop is the palisades and some more great climbing.