National Parks and Monuments 2011.
These stories are all about my first escorted coach tour. It started in Denver, Colorado, finished in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I added an extension to stay in San Francisco for a few days.
I visited many different National and State Parks and many National and State Monuments. I saw some of America's most remarkable scenery and natural wonders before meeting a cousin I never knew I had until a few days before I went on this trip.
![Invesco Field, Denver, Colorado.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/invesco-field.jpg)
Denver, Colorado, was the starting point for my National Monuments & Parks tour in 2011.
- Written by: Alan Morris
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![Bison in Custer State Park, South Dakota.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/custer.jpg)
I stayed in a hotel just outside the Custer State Park at Keystone, it seemed very familiar, and I am sure I once stayed there before on a road trip in the late 1980s with my friend Alistar Parry.
- Written by: Alan Morris
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![Alan Morris at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/rushmore.jpg)
The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills in Keystone, South Dakota.
- Written by: Alan Morris
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![Alan Morris at the Crazy Horse Memorial.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/crazy-horse.jpg)
The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills in Custer County, South Dakota. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse & pointing into the distance.
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![Bronze Bison statues at Tatanka.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/tatanka.jpg)
The Tatanka Story of the Bison Visitor Centre had a few things to look around on my visit. There were native Indians on hand to tell you their history & give more information about the story of the bison.
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![Devils Tower, Wyoming.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/devils-tower.jpg)
We were not scheduled to visit the Devils Tower National Monument. We were supposed to be going to the site of the battle of Custer's Last Stand but due to landslides, we couldn't get through to it.
- Written by: Alan Morris
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![Alan Morris in Saloon 10, Deadwood, South Dakota.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/alan-saloon10.jpg)
I went to look around Deadwood, South Dakota, after our tour coach stopped at our hotel in Lead. We were given 20 minutes to rest, and our coach driver offered to drop us off in Deadwood.
- Written by: Alan Morris
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![Alan Morris stood by small plane after Monument Valley flight.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/monumentvalley.jpg)
I flew over Monument Valley when I took a sightseeing flight on a De Havilland Canada aeroplane as part of my holiday in 2011. The people I was going with boarded the small aircraft for the flight in which everyone had a window seat.
- Written by: Alan Morris
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![The Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada.](/images/headers/travel/usa/monuments parks/flamingo-hotel.jpg)
While staying in Las Vegas, Nevada, I stayed at the Flamingo Hotel. I had been to Las Vegas a few times previously and have seen most of the tourist sites and stayed in lots of different hotels.
- Written by: Alan Morris
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