This was a trip I had put off taking for about three years. The Dakotas! I really did not think I would want to visit The Dakotas…I am happy to say that I was totally wrong!
We left Tampa and flew first to Chicago and then to Rapid City, South Dakota. Of course, we were starving when we finally arrived in a surprisingly quaint and cute Rapid City. (I always thought Rapid City was a large city…it is not!)
We rented a car and promptly tried to find someplace to eat. We found Firehouse Brewing Co., 610 S. Main Street, and chowed down! It was a very good place to have lunch. The food was very tasty, and the restaurant was in a newly renovated fire station. How can you beat that? So, with our bellies full, we were now ready to see exactly what the State of South Dakota had to offer.
We headed East on I-90 for 56 miles (it took about 48 minutes) to arrive at our first destination…Wall, South Dakota! If you have never been to Wall, South Dakota, you are in for a surprise. It is a small town. And, I mean…really small! The 76,000 square foot Wall Drug Store is the main attraction in the entire town (located at 510 Main Street). They also have a great rock shop across the street from the huge drug store (that I loved) and a few more nice restaurants on the very small main street.
We checked into our hotel, the Best Western Plains Hotel, 712 Glenn Street, for two nights and then set out to visit the tiny town and the famous Wall Drug Store for ourselves. So, you are wondering why I wanted to spend the night in Wall, South Dakota? Well, I tried to tell myself it was because Wall is known as the “Gateway” to Badlands National Park! (Being located close to The Badlands is a real big bonus!)
The real (honest) truth is probably that the thought of running around shopping and browsing in a 76,000-square-foot drug store totally fascinated me (not so much my husband)! LOL! Although, even now, I think he will admit that it was kind of fun seeing all the merchandise for sale and the unique displays in the store. Anyway, all that incredible shopping and browsing aside, here is my story about the Dakotas…
When we finished dinner and our shopping extravaganza inside Wall Drug Store, we noticed the weather had turned bad (like the black sky bad), and the wind had picked up significantly since we had entered the store. So, we quickly returned to our hotel room for the evening. We turned on the TV to check the local weather forecast and the current news. Yep, just what we thought! The weather service had issued a tornado warning for our immediate area. No surprise there! We were on our first day of vacation and were about to be blown away by a tornado in Wall, South Dakota? The color of the skies did kind of verify that it was a definite possibility! (Hopefully not!) Well, we were fortunate that night, and we survived a vicious storm. However, we did see the aforementioned (a word I used quite a bit in my paralegal days) “tornado” twisting around in the sky from our second story hotel balcony. It looked like it was only about half a mile away from our hotel!
Being crazy tourists again, we grabbed our camera/cell phones and stepped out on our balcony to take a closer look at the blackest sky we have ever seen and the fast-approaching storm! Much later, we realized we probably should have found a safe place in our hotel room to cover our heads and hunker down in our restroom until the storm had passed. Instead, we took some great pictures of the tornado from our balcony as it eerily swirled around in the sky right past our hotel room! Oh well, thank goodness curiosity, that night, did not kill the cat! Afterwards, we thought, “Wow, that tornado was really close”! Thank goodness it stayed up in the sky and did not touch the ground.
It was, however, the most memorable way to start our vacation trip!
The next day, we drove only seven (7) miles south on SD 240 to visit Badlands National Park (the North Unit)—the Pinnacles Entrance.
(FYI: There is no Visitor’s Center at the Pinnacles Entrance of Badlands National Park.) So, if you use this entrance to enter the park, make sure you go online and print a copy of the park map before your trip to The Badlands.
It is a 22-mile drive (40 minutes without stopping at all the overlooks) before you finally arrive at the Ben Reifel Visitor’s Center, where you can pick up a “real” park map and buy some souvenirs you cannot live without. Of course, as we drove along the Badlands Loop Road through the park, we could not resist stopping at the numerous overlook areas.
We first stopped at the Pinnacles Overlook area because there were so many Bighorn Sheep roaming around everywhere! We have some great pictures of all those awesome Bighorn Sheep! Then we jumped back in our car and continued to drive on toward the Visitor’s Center. We really took advantage of some great overlooks while driving the Badlands Loop Road. We stopped at: Ancient Hunter’s Overlook, Yellow Mounds Overlook, Conata Basin Overlook, Homestead Overlook, Burns Basin Overlook, Panorama Point Overlook, Prairie Wind Overlook, Panorama Point, Big Foot Pass Overlook and White River Valley Overlook. You really will enjoy all the beautiful scenery just driving around this park and stopping at all the lookout points to take some pictures. There is also a Roberts Prairie Dog Town you cannot miss…those prairie dogs are incredibly cute!
(We saved the Roberts Prairie Dog Town, Sage Creek Basin Overlook, Hay Butte Overlook, and Badlands Wilderness Overlook until the end of the day so we could stop there on our way out of the park). In Badlands, we saw some Bison, cute little Prairie Dogs, Burrowing Owls, and a lot of Bighorn Sheep (the sheep were climbing on ledges and cliffs that looked impossible to navigate). I really do not know how they do not fall off the cliffs! Even baby Bighorn Sheep were scrambling around with their mommas up and down the cliffs.
Badlands National Park also has some great little hiking trails at some of the lookout points that you can enjoy! We hiked the Cliff Shelf trailhead near the Visitor’s Center and a few other very nice and easy short trails throughout the park. Overall, the park was very scenic, and the trails were super easy to hike. Some of the trails were built on raised wooden boardwalks that you will need to climb up and down so you can get a better view of the scenery around the area. By lunchtime, we had driven all the way to the Ben Reifel Visitor’s Center and the Cedar Pass Lodge area where we stopped for a little while to rest, have some lunch and do some great souvenir shopping. After lunch, we hiked a few more trails near the Visitor’s Center, until it was time for us to head back toward our hotel in Wall for the evening (and the stops we saved for the end of the day). We loved The Badlands so much that instead of just heading out of the park near the Ben Reifel’s Visitor’s Center on SD 240 and then Interstate 90 (which you can do), we drove back through the entire park to get another look at the amazing scenery that is known as The Badlands (and to stop at Roberts Prairie Dog Town and the other overlook areas we missed)!
Badlands National Park in South Dakota is well worth your time to stop and visit. After seeing the unique landscape at Badlands, I can understand why this area was supposedly a great place for all the “Outlaws” (in the Wild West days) to hide out from the Lawmen! It would be easy to hideout in The Badlands if you knew exactly where your hideout was located and if you could get a pretty good head start from the Posse and all the Lawmen chasing after you! So go visit this beautiful park if you ever get the chance!
The next day, we drove 75 miles (1 hr. 15 minutes – via I-90 and SD 44W) to Keystone, South Dakota, where we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, 321 Swanzey, Keystone, SD.
It was a very nice hotel, located near a lot of great places to visit, dine and shop. It was also close to the next place we planned to visit: Mount Rushmore!!
For many years, I have seen pictures of Mount Rushmore on television and in books, however, to see it in person, is totally awesome!! It is a lot bigger than what I had ever imagined. The faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are huge, and it is amazing to see their faces carved in rock on a huge mountainside. It is also unbelievable when you realize that the carving of the Presidential faces on Mount Rushmore began in 1927 and were finally completed on October 31, 1941. Stop by the Visitor’s Center to get your map (and souvenirs), and then set out to see this amazing and incredible achievement!
It is said that over 400 laborers worked on this National Monument through the years, and not one of the workers died during the process. That, too, is also quite astonishing! Go see the film, the exhibits on how the Presidential heads were carved, and the bookstore located at the Borglum View Terrace. Also, make your way to the Grand View Terrace, where you can take some fabulous pictures (and, of course, selfies) with Mount Rushmore and the flags flying in the background. (You know we were not going to pass that chance up at all!) There is also an Amphitheater, Avenue of Flags and a Presidential Trail you can hike so you can get a much closer look at the actual carvings on the mountain side and enjoy the information on the trail under each carved Presidential head. We really enjoyed every minute of time we spent visiting this National Landmark in Keystone, South Dakota, and I am sure that you will to when you visit. It really was quite the “RUSH” and, you will definitely feel like going back to see “MORE”!! (Well, look at that…they actually did name Mount Rushmore quite accurately!)
We were on our way back to our hotel room in Keystone for the evening when we happened to see Dahl’s Chainsaw lot. We just had to pull over and visit the large outdoor woodcarving store. Their work carving large logs/trees with a chainsaw is unbelievable. You can even watch (safely from a distance) while they use the chainsaw to make a plain tree stump come to life right before your eyes and look totally amazing! I even found out where Big Foot was hiding all this time. He was visiting Dahl’s Chainsaw lot in Keystone, SD!! (Go figure!) We became best buds and even posed for a few pictures on a bench! Keystone, South Dakota is a pretty little town and a really, really nice place to visit. We wish we had planned to stay in Keystone at least more than one day and night!
The next time we visit South Dakota (and, there will be a next time) we will stay at least 2 days so we can enjoy more of this wonderful little town!
Keystone schools from 1895 and 1899, now a museum
We left Keystone, SD (via US-16 W and US385-S) and traveled a whole 34 miles (26 min. drive time) to Custer, South Dakota. We first found where our hotel was located, the Best Western Buffalo Ridge Inn, 310 W. Mt. Rushmore Road, Custer, SD, and then drove immediately to visit the Wind Cave National Park (8 miles – 19 minutes, via Wildlife Loop Road, Csp 7 and SD-87S).
On our way, we snapped some pictures of the Crazy Horse Monument (started in 1948) that was still being carved (5 years ago) into the mountainside.
Wind Cave National Park is located just West of Badlands National Park, and the cave temperature constantly hovers around 53 degrees underground. So, if you plan on taking a cave tour, please remember to bring a coat or jacket, sneakers or hiking shoes (and maybe some gloves and a hat) with you when you visit the park. Caves can be slippery and wet inside! Also, before arriving at the cave, please go on-line to review the five (5) different types of cave tours that are available (depending on your fitness level and what you really want to see and do underground) and to order your cave tour tickets.
Wind Cave National Park is famous for its “Boxwork” cave formations (calcite that project from the cave walls and intersect with each other; they look very similar to honeycomb formations). It also has some great hiking trails above ground (30 miles of hiking trails, to be exact) and a lot of Bison everywhere in the park! We know they also have some coyotes! We saw a large coyote while we were getting out of our car to hike a trail near the Visitor’s Center. They also have prairie dogs, elk and pronghorn roaming throughout the park too. So, keep your cameras and cell phones handy for some great pictures of wildlife! There is a Prairie Vista Trail that is an easy hike in the park. They also have some additional easy and moderate trails available to hike. The Black Hills in this area are very scenic and there is a definite wild look throughout the entire park; a lot of natural grasses and plants growing everywhere. We did not know exactly what to expect before visiting this park and we ended up being very pleasantly surprised. We really enjoyed the wide-open spaces that were filled with a lot of wildlife. We were, however, constantly looking for those wild animals (especially bison) while hiking in the park and did not hike too far from the main trails and roads. The cave tour we booked was also a lot of fun.
We got to explore another great cave and we enjoyed the entire time we were on our tour underground. We do tend, however, to like many of the cave tours we have taken throughout the years (i.e.: Mammoth Cave, Carlsbad Caverns, Longhorn Caverns and Florida Caverns).
FYI: There are no restaurants available in this park or just outside the park. So, make sure you pack your own lunch, power bars and plenty of water while visiting Wind Cave National Park. If you want to eat some lunch, you will have to travel to Custer, SD (25 miles North) or Hot Springs, SD (15 miles South). Also, there are no gas stations available in the park area, so fill-up your vehicle before visiting the park! After a fun day visiting Wind Cave National Park, we finally returned to Custer to check-in to our hotel room. After resting for a little while, we headed out to grab some dinner, do some shopping and visit the quaint town of Custer, South Dakota.
The next day, we drove only four (4) miles from our hotel to visit Custer State Park. What can I say about Custer State Park?
Well, it happens to be one of my two favorite State Parks to visit in America (the other one is Dead Horse Point State Park (near Moab) – which I already wrote about in my BLOG)! The Visitor’s Center is located at the junction of Wildlife Loop Road and Highway 16. If you really want to see Bison up close and personal, head to Custer State Park! They place monitors on some of the bison in the herds, and they have a big (3 dimensional) map in their Visitor’s Center that lights up, indicating exactly where the bison herds are currently roaming around in the park!
You will not have to drive around trying to find the bison herds in this park…you will know exactly where they are hanging out! (Cool Beans!!) Custer State Park also has a very popular “Buffalo Roundup” you can attend every year on the last Friday in September. You can watch as 1,400 Bison/Buffalo are herded through the park! Also, it is my understanding that Custer State Park now has a new Bison Center, which is also located on the Wildlife Loop Road in the park. The new Bison Center has been open since May of 2022. Hopefully, we will get to visit the Bison Center the next time we visit South Dakota and Custer State Park! It sounds totally amazing!
The first Bison (36 of them) were brought to Custer Wildlife Preserve in 1914. Custer Wildlife Preserve/Custer State Forest became Custer State Park in 1919.
Burros were introduced into the park in 1927 to provide transportation within the park and the surrounding areas. Now, there are quite a few Burros in certain areas of the park that love begging for food! Some of the other numerous animals you may see in Custer State Park are: mountain goats, pronghorn, prairie dogs, white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, bighorn sheep, coyotes and a lot of birds. They also have some mountain lions at the park; hopefully, you will not see a mountain lion while hiking a wilderness trail! A great place to see the wild animals (from your car) is on the 18 mile Wildlife Loop Road, especially in the early morning hours or later in the evening (before sunset). There is also: the Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Road and the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway to check out while you are visiting this area of South Dakota. When you drive the Needles Highway, you will come across the Eye of the Needle. You will also encounter some one lane roads carved through the rock mountainside (that two cars cannot drive through at the same time), some crazy climbers clambering up the actual Needle formations to the tippy top and some fantastic scenery.
The Needles Highway really is a very fun drive! Just keep your cameras ready to take some great pictures in this area of the park. If you have some time after visiting Custer State Park, drive to Hot Springs, SD (approx. 30 miles South on SD89 and US18E) to see the on-going dig at The Mammoth Site, 1800 US 18 Bypass, Hot Springs, SD.
They are constantly digging up Columbian and Woolly Mammoths, camels, wolves and giant short-faced bears buried over 26,000 years ago (since the Ice Age) and their exhibits are wonderful to behold. (They have a great gift shop too!) The Mammoth Site is a fun place to spend a few hours and, when you get hungry, eat at Woolly’s Grill and Cellar Restaurant at 1648 U. S. Hwy. 18 (it is practically right next door to the dig site)! There is also a Jewel Cave in the area that we heard is a nice cave to explore if you have enough time to stop and check it out. We were not able to visit the Jewel Cave on this trip. It will have to wait until we return to South Dakota in a few years.
CUSTER STATE PARK TRAILS MAP
Peter Norbeck was a South Dakota conservationist who would later become the state’s Governor and U.S. Senator. He fell in love with the rugged terrain of the southern Black Hills, and in 1912, Norbeck helped establish the Custer State Forest. In 1914, three dozen buffalo were purchased from the Scotty Philip’s herd near Pierre, South Dakota. Just five years later, Custer State Park was officially made a state park. By 1924, the buffalo herd had grown to about 100 animals. As the herd grew, park officials would round them up periodically (every 2-5 years). In 1965, the roundup became an annual event with the first annual auction held in early 1966.
About the Buffalo Roundup
Custer State Park’s expansive grasslands and diverse ecosystem provides an ideal environment for buffalo to thrive. The primary objective of the Buffalo Roundup is to manage the growing buffalo herd, preventing overpopulation and preserving the ecological balance of the park. By managing the buffalo population, Custer State Park ensures that the ecosystem remains in balance, preventing overgrazing and resource depletion. Depending on the herd size, 300-500 bison will be sold at the park's annual auction later in the fall. The park also uses the roundup as an opportunity to vaccinate, brand, and perform health assessments (such as pregnancy tests) on the buffalo.
Woolly’s Grill and Cellar Restaurant
The next day, we drove through some wonderful small towns all around the area on our way to our next destination: Spearfish, SD. We stopped for lunch in Deadwood, then drove to visit Sturgis (it really is not a big town), then through Lead, Cheyenne Crossing and up the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway to Spearfish, SD. (All of the towns are located close to each other…it was a bunch of fun visiting all of them on our way to our hotel.) We stopped in the town of Spearfish for a little while (to shop at some cute stores) and then headed to our Lodge: Spearfish Canyon Lodge, 10619 Roughlock Falls Road, Spearfish, SD, where we spent two nights. The Lodge is located about 10 miles out of town near three great waterfalls.
On our arrival at the beautiful, remote Lodge, it was raining. My husband and I were not super happy about the rain…sometimes, though, the weather does not care about your plans! So, instead of going to hike a waterfall or two, we just relaxed at the very nice comfy Lodge. Come to think of it, I really did not mind that at all! I just knew that the rain would stop long enough the next day so we could hike to the three waterfalls. And…guess what? The next day it did stop raining and we got to hike to all three of those beautiful waterfalls! Yay!! It was a little chilly, but it felt good…especially when you are hiking uphill to a waterfall!
We hiked to: Bridal Veil Falls, Roughlock Falls and Spearfish Canyon Falls. We stayed one more night and enjoyed a quiet meal at the (not at all crowded) Lodge.
(It was nice; it was like we had the whole Lodge to ourselves!) Spearfish Canyon Lodge has a nice restaurant (only one) and a small bar area in the open and very large lodge-y looking main room. It also has a huge rock fireplace going straight up the wall to the massive wooden beams on the ceiling and large stuffed animal heads on the walls. After a long day of hiking, it was a very nice place to sit and rest before a roaring fire!
SPEARFISH CANYON LODGE
Exceptional Dining since 1909
From the remains of the McLaughlin Tie and Timber sawmill, the Glendoris Inn was opened in 1909 and Spearfish Canyon had its first lodge and eatery.
The next day, we left South Dakota and headed to the State of North Dakota! Read Part 2 of The Dakotas – (A Land of Many Adventures and Encounters) next month!!
TO BE CONTINUED…
ALMA'S PHOTO ALBUM
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