When we announced our summer road trip and mentioned Mount Rushmore National Memorial, some people flat out said — SKIP. The thing was my aunt was visiting from Cuba and had one request and that mountain of rocky president faces was it; it was the reason we were going “west” to begin with. Look, I don’t know why of everything there is to see in the U.S. she chose this, but like magic genies we planned our trip to Colorado and subsequent road trip home based on granting her one wish. I hadn’t yet known about the controversy surrounding Rushmore but having friends say “skip the tourist trap” was a surefire way to enter something with very low expectations. In retrospect, our family visit to Mount Rushmore was a clear cut example of why you should always make a judgment from personal experience and not from secondhand sources.

Listening to my aunt talk about the memorial on our ride there, I understood why she was dead set on seeing it. It’s a work of art (Es una obra de arte). Can you imagine how much time and precision and work — how hard it was to sculpt something out of a mountain? I had to agree… that does seem pretty freaking hard.

Once near the park, a bunch of cars were pulled over so we pulled over too to see what everyone was fussing about. It was pretty momentous to get out of the car and see the side of Washington’s face!

Visiting Mount Rushmore National Memorial

We walked in along the Avenue of Flags. With the epic view of Mount Rushmore in the background, it was also fun trying to find New Jersey’s flag, since in full disclosure, I had no idea what it looked like. (Do you know what your state flag looks like?) The names of each state are listed on the pillars as well as the year they were admitted to the union and their place among the states, districts, commonwealth or territory. New Jersey is #3 because NJ don’t play.

Daughter didn’t know much (aka anything) about Thomas Jefferson before but he sure did take the lead as her favorite president when she learned he was the author of the very first ice cream recipe, her absolute favorite things in the world! Forget that he was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence — vanilla ice cream, bitches.

We stood on the overlook and snapped photos in front of the iconic memorial before heading inside to learn more.

Becoming a Park Ranger

Husband and I get pretty geeked out on learning so we enjoyed our time gathering information. But mostly, and I can speak for Husband too when I say — our favorite part was the Junior Ranger Program. Why? Because as any parent will tell you, finding a way to keep kids busy and entertained is a WIN. So there was that but it was also fun learning about Mount Rushmore with them.

There are a few different options but our kids fir the 5-12 program. They were given a booklet with activities that helped explore the site. They played matching games with tools, talked to park rangers, and answered questions from a movie they had to watch.

After filling out the booklet, a ranger “quizzed” them and swore them in as official Junior Rangers. They lifted their right hand and repeated after the ranger to be “a protector of parks.” #aaaadorable.

After they were sworn in, they were awarded a certificate and a badge. Yes, full disclosure, they originally did it for the badge. But they had so much fun working through the activities that the process was as memorable as their prize. They still walk around with their badges and gloat to their friends that they’re legit Junior Rangers.

Visiting Mount Rushmore National Memorial felt like a classic Americana Road Trip thing to do. It was a great place to set the tone and start our 1,731 mile trek back to NJ.

P.S. An epic Thanksgiving battle and 30 Instagram shots of Mexico that will have you like Whoa