Originally shared on Instagram on December 5, 2025. Photography and story by Mark Middleton.
In those first strange weeks of the global pandemic, when the whole world felt like it had been unplugged, I got restless. Everything was shut down, no one knew what was coming next, and I remember thinking, If there was ever a time to take a road trip across America, this is it.
About five days in, I made it all the way to South Dakota—and to Mount Rushmore. Standing at the entrance, I realized I was the only person there. An empty parking lot. No crowds. No voices. No footsteps. It felt like the entire world had quietly stepped offstage and left me alone with this piece of American history. I’ll put the visitor center photo in the comments—it still blows my mind.
That night, around 11pm, the temperature dropped, the sky went dark, and the stars came out in a way you only get to see in true wilderness. I carried my big floodlight with me, hiked out to a vantage point, and used it to illuminate Washington’s profile. I set up my tripod, opened the shutter for a long exposure, and let the landscape do the rest. It was dead silent except for wolves howling somewhere off in the distance. One of those moments where you feel unbelievably small and unbelievably alive at the same time.
That whole road trip ended up being one of the coolest I’ve taken. With the world paused, I hiked national parks with no one on the trails, drove empty highways, and felt the country in a way that’s rare and maybe never coming back again. This photograph will always remind me of that strange, quiet, beautiful moment in time when the world stood still—and I kept moving.
This photo was taken on May 6, 2020.
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