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A year ago, Mike and I each made a list of goals for our future. Some things we knew for sure would be on each other's list, like wanting to move to a farm someday. But as we sat across the room from each other answering these questions, writing on our own piece of paper, one of the questions ended up being the biggest surprise. Where are the three places you want to travel to? Since it was the middle of the pandemic when we were answering these questions, neither one of us picked locations outside of the US. I remember crying and laughing at the same time as we read over our answers together. We wrote down the exact same locations - all three of them! Mount Rushmore, The Grand Canyon, and Texas. We even wrote them in the same order. We didn’t just say “Arizona,” we specifically said “the Grand Canyon.” We both said we wanted to explore one National Monument, one Natural Wonder, and the whole state of Texas.
After a discussion this Spring we decided we would finally take a trip. We have been talking about it for decades and it was the perfect time because we would be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. Realizing we had spent so much time working, raising a family, and letting life take over; we decided to take some time for ourselves. Thankfully, now we have the opportunity to take our laptops and phones with us, giving us the ability to work from anywhere - even on vacation. Because of this, we were able to make it a 2.5-week vacation.
I ordered a Road Trip USA book to begin getting ideas of which routes we wanted to take. It’s a book I will keep forever and hope to use for many more of the suggested trips in the book. Route 66 is high up on the list. When it arrived, we loved that it was the 25th Anniversary Edition. This is so symbolic for us as we are entering this new stage in life where we can say yes to adventures.
Planning for a trip is often my favorite part. I get all of the stress out before the trip by trying to pick the best locations and activities. This way, when we are on the actual trip, I can relax and enjoy it. While we were planning this trip, we decided where we wanted to be and what we wanted to do on our actual Anniversary. Then we worked backwards from there. I’m great at planning the day-to-day parts of a trip, while Mike is amazing at planning for emergencies. Between the two of us, we have everything covered. I have another blog all about preparing for a trip. You can read that here. The road trip atlas is helpful when planning trips.
When I first started planning our trip, I thought we would only be gone a week to 10 days, at the most. Two-Three days travel time, each way; a day to see Mount Rushmore, then heading back home. A quick and easy trip to Mount Rushmore and done, right? How much more could there possibly be to do in South Dakota?
Well, this is where all of my planning and research came in, because that week-long trip soon became 10 days in the Black Hills, plus we added travel days through I-90 on the way there and a different route on the way home; allowing us to hit the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole in Wyoming. All in all, we ended up being gone for 2.5 weeks, and traveling through six states! I found that I absolutely loved the Black Hills, and South Dakota had so much more to offer than just a quick day or two on the itinerary. We will be going back to spend time in Yellowstone and will definitely drive back to the Black Hills again to see all of the natural wonders, drive through the tight caves, and look for more buffalo. Next time, we hope to share the trip with more of our family.
Devils Tower
The first major stop on the trip was to Devil’s Tower in WY, which is actually part of the Black Hills. We drove through Spearfish Canyon in SD which was about an hour away from our first Airbnb, but a tornado and hail storm changed those plans. The adventures of the first few days can be found here. I was glad we had decided to stay in Deadwood and didn’t try to stay in one location the entire time. Some had suggested that Rapid City was a good middle ground, and would have worked for the entire trip. But it was nice to have three days in the Deadwood/Spearfish Canyon area without having to be in the car a ton after traveling for days.
Spearfish Canyon
After being detoured from the tornado we were able to check out Spearfish Canyon the next day. We enjoyed seeing the rock formations and the waterfalls. We started at Roughlock Falls Nature area. This area had great walkways and railings which made it an easy, family-friendly adventure. We went to the next waterfall which was Bridal Veil Falls. You can see the falls from your car, or you can park across the street in the parking lot. In Spearfish, you will find a Historic Hatchery which has a great city park as well as a working hatchery with an underground viewing area. We took some great videos of these adventures to share with you.
https://youtu.be/bkN1bDuplf4
Deadwood
Deadwood was my favorite town. Unlike the other touristy small towns we went to, Deadwood had a lot less traffic on the main street which helped with the charm. I realized the main traffic streets went behind the main part of town, so you could enjoy walking around. What made Deadwood stand out to me was the live action old cowboy shootouts in the middle of the street. If you’re interested in the schedule, visit their website here. You’ll find the schedule of how they bring the old west alive, multiple times a day, by reenacting stories from Wild Bill Hickok and the Goldrush times. The town does this during the travel season for the tourists. I stepped out of an elevator and ended up in the middle of a scene which was super fun! This town has lots of cute touristy shops and multiple museums that we checked out.
Our favorite restaurant to check out in Deadwood was Jacob's Brewhouse and Grocer. The next store was also a really cool coffee shop/glass blowing artist studio made out of an old gas station called the Pump House. If you’re ever in Deadwood, you should check this place out too.
Leaving Deadwood, we headed to Sturgis on our way to Rapid City. Things were pretty quiet in this small town since it wasn't during the World-Famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Mike had owned a Harley back when we were dating and had long hair, which my grandpa think he was a hooligan. We even had a crystal Harley on our wedding cake and got pictures with the bike on our wedding day. He sold it years ago, but going to Sturgis has always been something he wanted to check out. Two of our favorite stops there were the Hall of Fame Motorcycle Museum, and a very deserted Full Throttle Saloon with the machines, bridges, and buses that they used as sculpture art. Our quiet little trip through town would have been a totally different experience if it was in August when over half a million bikers roll into town. I think we did hit each of the Harley shops in the area, at least five of them in the Black Hills.
Rapid City
We stayed in an Airbnb in Rapid City for five days. This video goes over some of the things that I had with us for food on the trip. The goal was to eat most of our breakfast, lunch and snacks from items I brought with us, and only eat out once a day.
Wall drugs is famous for their billboards which are everywhere. We were shocked when we started seeing them as far away as Devil’s Tower, WY. Another thing they are pretty famous for are cake donuts. If you’re ever in town, you have to go check out the maze of shops until you find the donuts. I will be really honest here and say it was a little bit of sensory overload, and a sugar high from the donut for me. I was happy when we made our way out to the quiet courtyard and I got Mike to take a picture on the giant jackalope. Don’t forget to ask a cashier for your free Wall Drug bumper sticker they give out.
As you’re heading back on the freeway a few minutes down the road is an 80-foot dinosaur. I put Wall Drug Dinosaur into the GPS to find it as I didn’t realize it wasn’t at the main location. Going to Wall Drugs in the morning and then heading to Badlands for the rest of the day is perfect.
The landscape changes immediately when arriving at Badlands. To get through the gate, you will need an America the Beautiful National Park Pass (same as Devils Tower). It seriously feels like you are on a movie set for the Moon, Mars, or another outer space sci-fi type of movie. In fact, there are a ton of movies that have been filmed here.
Here, there are a variety of hikes you can enjoy, and each lookout point felt like you were in a completely new area. Due to the heat, we typically stayed with the easier, shorter hikes that were less than a mile, but we did a bunch of them. If you are traveling with your family, you can find a hike for everyone! Most of the trails are boardwalk style for ease of the whole family. We packed a cooler and stayed way into the evening as there was no light pollution and the stars were just as amazing as the sunset. We were lucky enough to be there during a full moon. Not just any full moon, a strawberry full moon, which was even more special for me. We ended up staying until after midnight before venturing back to Rapid City. I would love to come back another day to see the sunrise.
Bear Country
We did see a ton of wild animals on our trip. But one of them I was glad we didn’t see in the wild was bears. Bear Country is 200 acres where you drive around a three-mile loop and see all of the animals from Elk to Buffalo, but the bears are really the star of the show. Seeing Grizzlies and Black bears just strolling along next to your car is a sight to see for sure. The entire park is divided into two areas where most of it is seen from your car, but there is also a walking area to see smaller animals like bear cubs, some skunks behind glass, and otters playing in the water. Mike and I had to get pictures in the rocking chairs on the porch. That is such a life goal of ours someday, to have a big covered porch with rocking chairs.
The Cosmos Mystery Area is a fun area to explore. It is a gravity mystery area as gravity works a little differently there. We thought it was worth the stop. The tour guides were amazing, I can’t give away too many of the details as that is what makes the mystery area special. I definitely think this would be fun with elementary age kids. But as adults, we had a good time too. The whole adventure only took about an hour.
Rapid City itself was fun to go explore, we loved tracking down the life size bronze presidential sculptures that they have around the city. The map of them can be found here. Another fun place to check out was the Firehouse Brewing Co. downtown on Main Street. It is a historical 100+ year old firehouse. If you were to ask Mike what his favorite meal was, it would be the ribs at the Firehouse.
Custer State Park
Custer State Park, Custer City, Hill City, Keystone, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Jewel Cave are all in this area of Custer State Park. If we had an RV and were planning this trip we would have stayed in Deadwood, and then went straight down to the Custer area. Even staying in the Rapid City area if you choose to stay there for the whole trip is not a bad idea. But each day's adventures might mean an hour car ride. Some of the adventures we did while still staying in Rapid City, but we had two magical nights sleeping under the stars in Keystone also.
Under Canvas is a glamping resort where we had a glass roof on our stargazer tent to watch the stars just right above our king size bed. We have glamped before, where you show up and the tent is already made with a real bed inside. But we’ve never glamped not like this. Our tent had a woodstove and a full bathroom with running water, a toilet, sink, and a shower! From the lodge they bring you down to your tent in golf carts so you don’t have to carry your luggage. We had the best time staying there with the experiences of sitting around the campfire making s'mores and meeting people from around the world but not having to worry about a thing. We had breakfasts and dinners at the lodge restaurant, which honestly, were some of my favorite meals on the trip. Besides just being seasonally fresh, it was fun to eat and then play a quiet game at the table afterwards from their selection of games. From the viewing deck you could drink lavender espresso and watch Mount Rushmore in the sunrise, or wait until evening to see the faces light up. It was just four miles away from Keystone and Mount. Rushmore.
After staying at Under Canvas, Mount Rushmore I am excited to go check out all of their other locations in the US. We were taking note that they are also in the Grand Canyon.
There are tons of great scenery to see at Custer State Park, but really, everyone is there to see the buffalo and that is all anyone is talking about. We were lucky. Right when we got through the gate on our first day, we saw a lone buffalo by the visitor center, which just added to the excitement of being able to see the herd. We checked in at the Visitor Center and played on the rock wall, checked out some of the pictures, and made the mistake of being too shy not to talk to the Park Ranger who had this huge map. Now I realize he was showing the visitors where the best places to see the buffalo were. Lesson learned. Make sure you have a full tank of gas and some snacks because we drove that Nature Loop for what felt like two hours and didn’t see another buffalo even though there are 1,300 in the park. We did stop at the new Bison Center, and this time asked some more questions. We didn’t get to see any more buffalo that day, but when we came back a second time, we tried the dirt roads that were suggested to us and holy moly we were right in the middle of hundreds of buffalo.
https://youtu.be/hPQcK7otXE4
Is it buffalo or bison? I don’t even know, but it was amazing! As we were watching one that was kinda staring us down standing in front of our windshield, another one started licking the car near the front tire. It is an experience I will never forget and totally worth all of the driving around trying to find them.
When you go to Custer State Park, get the week-long pass because you are going to want to use it everyday. There is so much more to do and see then the bison even though that is all we think about at first. Make sure that you know the measurements of your car before heading out on the Needles Highway. Large trucks would not fit in these very narrow carved out tunnels on your way to Sylvan Lake. Trying to find which one of the spires is the Needle Eye is half the fun of not knowing what side of the road it is going to be on.
Sylvan Lake is a swimming and paddle boarding lake at the end of the highway. There is a great trail where we walked all around the lake and experienced it from all sides, including the dam keeping the water in the lake. Bring a picnic basket, towels, and swimsuits and you can stay all day enjoying this lake.
The views from the highest peak in the park were amazing but getting there was not for the faint of heart. I do not love big drops on the side of a road with no guardrails; it was a little nail-biting for me, but worth it up at the top. It felt like you could see forever in all directions.
Iron Mountain Highway Tunnel
I surprised Mike with the next adventure. We headed back to the main visitor center at Custer State Park and from there, we went on Iron Mountain Highway. It is important to start back from the visitor center for this because if you come from the other direction, you will miss the view. As you drive, there are three tight tunnels. The first one was a very quick peak of Mount Rushmore. I thought we had missed the epic moment I was trying to capture coming through the tunnel and seeing Mount Rushmore for the first time, but after some switch backs it ended up the third tunnel was that magic view I had been waiting for. We hadn’t planned on going to see it in person that evening, but on a whim, we decided to go and watch the night show.
Mount Rushmore
We made sure we went to the lightning ceremony in the evening, but also wanted to check out the Presidential Trail and sculptures studio, so we went back for a second time. We hiked around and were able to see all the faces from different angles. It was pretty amazing. I loved peeking through a little cave like opening and seeing George Washington’s Face. Either way you go on the trail there will be a lot of stairs. The monument stopped construction during WWII and never picked back up again. When you go to the sculptures studio you can see the model they worked from and what it was originally planned to look like. I loved walking under all of the flags of every state and really getting a feel of how many different parts there are to what makes up our country.
Custer City was near the park and also the Crazy Horse Monument. We loved The Custer Wolf restaurant which had a watermelon radish on my salad. Being able to have a new produce item that I have never tried before always makes me happy. This restaurant had a nice covered seating area outside along with inside dining. Across the street is the Black Hills Burger and Bun restaurant which we didn’t get to eat at because the wait was too long the day we wanted to go, but came highly recommended. Buglin’ Bull Restaurant had some killer nachos when we stopped in there one evening waiting for the light show at Crazy Horse.
Crazy Horse Monument
When I was researching this trip, everyone said to make sure you go see Mount Rushmore before seeing the Crazy Horse Monument, which is why we did the impromptu night show earlier in our trip. The size of all of the Mount Rushmore faces fit in the mouth area of Crazy Horse, between the chin and nose. You pay to get into the gate and then pay again to take a bus ride to get closer to the monument, the extra $2 for the bus ride was totally worth it. I had planned the trip for later in the day so we could see it in the daylight and stay for the laser light show, but they let you leave and come back after dark. So, that's when we snuck down to Custer for those nachos.
I think my favorite part of seeing Crazy Horse is talking to Grandma about it. She had mentioned that they were carving that when she was a young girl and aren’t they done yet? Not knowing much history about it before we got there, she was right. They have been carving it nonstop for the past 70 years, so she would have been a young girl when she saw it in person. Being 93, you never know what her interpretation of young is.
Jewel Cave
The Jewel Cave needs reservations. Make sure you have hiking or tennis shoes. It was a lot cooler in the cave, so I was happy I had brought a long sleeve jacket with me even though it was 90° outside. And be prepared for A LOT of stairs. We went 379 feet under the earth, which in itself is pretty incredible. The Jewel Cave is one of the largest three caves in the world and pictures just don't do it justice. If you love caves there is another one nearby the Wind Cave.
Mike LOVES bigfoot and being able to take his picture next to the World’s Largest Bigfoot was pretty epic for him. I am honestly surprised he hasn’t made it his profile picture yet. Bigfoot is in Keystone. Dahl’s Chainsaw art #dahlschainsawart is all over the Black Hills and the one I didn’t know that would make me almost scream in the car in excitement was the Smokey the Bear in Hill City. Being a logger's daughter, Smokey was probably a bigger part of my childhood then even Mickey Mouse.
Hill City and Keystone are only a few minutes apart, but when you do it by steam engine, it makes a beautiful scenic tour that takes you back in time. We rode the 1880 Train round trip on our actual anniversary. What a relaxing way to just sit back and take it all in after being on the go so much the previous two weeks. It was a wonderful break to slow down for two hours.
When I started planning this trip, I didn’t realize how much we truly needed to get away from house projects that seem to go on forever and normal everyday life of just being busy. We have waited 25 years for this trip, hoping “someday” would come. Realizing that time is NOW and we need to make time to actually make memories that we can cherish for a lifetime is so important.
You can watch the full Road Trip Adventure 5-Part series here.
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