In the past couple of years we've traveled extensively in our fifth-wheel trailer/F-250 Super Duty combo, clocking over 50,000 miles and rolling through some 35 states. Our wanderings have taken us from the vast expanses of New Mexico, to the skyscraper-confines of New York City. We've cruised the Everglades on airboats, walked through the vast darkness of Carlsbad Caverns, and sat by the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri.

What makes the Black Hills, and its immediate area, so memorable is the sheer number of awesome sights that await you in this part of South Dakota. There's Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Custer State Park, Devil's Tower, Deadwood, and Badlands National Park, just to name a few. Naturally, you need a bit of time to see all these scenic areas and we spent more time in the Black Hills than at nearly any other spot during our many 5th-wheel adventures.

While in the Black Hills, we set up camp in what we found was an ideally centralized location - Custer, South Dakota - named after General George Custer, and within a modest driving distance to most of the sights we intended to see. As it turned out, the setting was perfect, and our home away from home, the Big Pine Campground in Custer, satisfied all our home-base needs.

Two of the closest destinations to Custer on our list of adventures were also two of the most memorable: Mount Rushmore and the in-progress Crazy Horse Memorial. Mount Rushmore is of course, a well-known national landmark, and one of the most visited areas in the U.S. It took approximately 15 years to plan and carve Mount Rushmore, and when finished in 1941 it was instantly hailed as one of the most important memorials in America. Visiting Mount Rushmore is indeed a humbling experience.

Near Mount Rushmore is another awesome memorial, but this time it's a work in progress. The Crazy Horse Memorial, located just up the road from the town of Custer, is presently being carved out of a mountain on Sioux Indian land. The statue was started in 1948 by sculptor Korczak Ziokowski as a tribute to the great Indian leader Crazy Horse. Although Ziokowski passed away several years ago, the work is still carried on by his sons and daughters.

When finished, the statue will measure 563 feet high by 641 feet long, much, much larger than Mount Rushmore. Presently, Crazy Horse's face is finished and part of his outstretched arm, and the horse he sits on is being roughed out. Even in this unfinished state, the memorial is awe-inspiring, and although a completion date has not been announced, it will be decades before the memorial fully comes to life.