Twenty-year-old Holly Venderley didn’t plan to spend her night in jail when she and two friends began their barely planned road trip from Indiana to South Dakota.
Growing up, Venderley spent a lot of time visiting her family’s home along Lake Superior in Canada, where she first developed her adventurous spirit and love of the outdoors. And she says she wants to spend the next decade nurturing that love.
“In my twenties, I wanted to make it a goal of mine to visit more places and experience the world a little more because this is obviously when we have freedom," Venderley said. "So, this is like an introduction to my twenties, I guess.”
But shortly after arriving at Mount Rushmore National Memorial on Jan. 3, Venderley found herself with less freedom than when she arrived.
The grounds at Mount Rushmore open to visitors at 5 a.m. and close at 11 p.m. during the summer as posted online, but according to Venderley, who arrived around 10 p.m., she didn’t know the memorial closes two hours earlier during winter months.
And because she arrived after dark, she says she didn’t see signs warning her not to climb the mountain faces.
“I was feeling spontaneous and adventurous and was like, ‘Oh, what if I climbed it,'" she said.
Two other visitors have had the same feeling since 2019, but unlike them, she only made it up the talus slope of loose debris to the base of George Washington’s bust before park rangers stopped her.
According to reports from law enforcement, Venderley said she knew the park had closed and that she was not allowed to climb Mount Rushmore, which is why she did it at night. But Venderley contests the ranger’s report.
She says she never meant to break any laws, but she still pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to climb Mount Rushmore and received a $1,250 fine — more than the $1000 fine a woman received in 2019 when she climbed nearly to the top of the memorial.
Moreso than the fine, Venderley says she’s upset that people may believe she consciously broke the law.
“I don’t think anyone plans anything for the pure fact that it’s illegal, you know," she said. "That definitely was not the case.”
Despite the rocky start to her decade of outdoor adventure, Venderley says her next stop is Yosemite — the birthplace of American rock climbing.
