Starting to plan a rough itinerary, should’ve started months ago. Hope we can get rooms near the parks. So we’re doing Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Deadwood and the Minute Man thing. Hopefully I can get your tickets, if not, no biggie. I know that on our drive we’ll be stopping at stuff that’s not in our plans, but what are the other sites to see? Probably spending 2-3 days in the area then Sioux Falls for Thursday morning, possibly evening.

Badlands National Park. At least drive through it.

Yup, Badlands for sure.

Since you will be close I would check out Devils tower and hike around it. The hike is not that long or difficult. It is a very interesting place. It is just across the line in Wyoming.

Are there kids involved? If so, Bear Country, Reptile Gardens and the Flintstone Village are cool. At least, they were 10 years ago.

I was gonna tell you to skip sewer falls then saw ur last line.

I would agree Devils Tower and badlands are cooler than Rushmore and crazy horse. Unfortunately for you if you’re coming for the NTA that’ll be about when thousands of bikers will be flooding the hills making everything extra crowded and loud.

Historical Fish hatchery in Spearfish, Spearfish canyon, Theres a big gold mine that you can park by an overlook and watch the BIG equipment work, The Gore buffolo jump, just into Wyo. right on interstate. Get a trail map, You can drive old logging roads right up to the fence on the backside of the park.Needles hwy is cool. Do some fishing on Pactola. Sturgis is a cool town in the off season.

I wouldn’t call it a must see but you might consider the Corn Palace in Mitchell.

How much time do you have?

Personally before I spent much time at Rushmore or Crazy Horse I'd do Badlands NP, Needles Highway, Devils Tower, and Spearfish Canyon Drive. The Tower is my favorite followed by the Needles Highway. Custer Park is another good one. I'm sure I'm forgetting some. It's going to be a disaster that time of year with tourists but it is what it is.

IMHO deadwood is a waste of precious time as are the other tourists traps. Too many natural wonders to see

I'll comment more later

Oh,check out The Cosmos Mystery Village in the Rapids City area. I found it entertaining.

I'd save a little time and money by skipping Crazy Horse.

The governor ……..

Good Plan...Especially Deadwood and Rushmore.

Spearfish canyon is getting to be a real estate money pit, but is still a beautiful drive, especially in the early morning or evening.

The kids loved bear country and reptile gardens, can't remember what town it was but we toured a gold mine deal and panned for some planted gold, fake but entertaining. Rushmore was worth the stop, skip crazy horse you can drive by and take a look with binoculars don't waste anymore time. I would say driving through Custer State park was my favorite, free range donkeys walk right up to the truck, we had to park in the road and let the Buffalo herd pass down both sides of the truck that was my favorite.

Wall drugs

Wind Cave National Park for wildlife.

Giant tourist trap but it’s worth a stop for sure.

For those going to sioux falls for the convention and coming from the west, theres a really good bbq joint behind the gas station at the Humbolt exit.

Custer State Park is an interesting you never know what critters you might see (Don’t pet the fluffy “cows”). I could spend hours driving the forest roads in the off seasons but tourist season sucks side by sides are everywhere. You can rent them out there along with E-bikes there’s a long bike trail the Michelson Trail if your into biking.

Spelunking at Jewel cave if your into that, mining stuff to see in Lead, meal specials in Deadwood at the different casinos.

Pine Ridge is a eye opener.......

dont try to fish the jim river its a waste of time

There is a mammouth dig site in Hot Springs that is really neat.

If you go through the Badlands drop down and take Hwy 44 into Rapid City, much nicer drive then the interstate.
Needles Hwy is a good drive with several pull-outs so you can get out and walk a little. Just make sure nobody in the car has a problem with car sickness, It’s a windy road.

If you like hiking a little do the first 3/4 mile of the Harney peak hike, that gets you to a nice overlook.

Our Vietnam Vet group put a week in SD about 5 years ago. We stopped at all the stated sites in the western area that were mentioned above. We spent 3 nights in Dead Wood. Did Sturgus, Wall Drug, the Minuteman tour and a bus tour through the Badlands and all the other places around Rapid City. If you are going east then I would put a plug in for the Terry Redlin museum at Watertown. We came from WI and took in The spam museum in Austin MN along with the corn palace which to me was not what I had invisioned it to be.

Bryce

Oldest kid will be 18 if she decides to come. I guess I’ll be there the week before the Sturgis rally so bikes everywhere. I’ll check out Devils tower fore sure, I just watched Encounters of the 3rd kind a couple nights ago…lol.

It’s a boring, featureless river compared to the big sioux, but ive caught some really good channels and it usually has enough water to get a boat around.

1880"s town at midland...spearfish museum of the plains. Have a plains wolf killed there over 100 yrs ago..big one. Last plains wolf killed there they say. Hatchery is awesome...many ghosttowns...Tinton at the back of spearfish up the canyon.

If you're planning to spend the night in motels anywhere around the Black Hills area during Sturgis you might try to get reservations beforehand.
We went through there on vacation one year during Sturgis. Couldn't find any motel rooms. Finally found a guy in Murdo that rented us a tent for 75 bucks to spend the night in. Motels were full up all the way to Chamberlain.

On the contrary, I would skip the corn palace. In fact I would skip Mitchel all together!

The Mammoth site in Hot springs is a great place. Plan for a few hours.

x2 on the mammoth dig. I wouldn't go anywhere near Sturgis, we were there once and the traffic and people were horrible. Needles highway,Deadwood and Mount Rushmore were packed. Bear country was nice if you have kids or city folk. Badlands were cool. We went to a ranch rodeo at Edgemont that was quite a bit different than a pro rodeo.

Get up and out early in the morning. Even during Sturgis week it isn't bad in the am.

Are there any sites that are wheelchair accessible? Not to hijack the thread.

I would think all the National Park stuff would be. The Minute Man Delta 1 tour isn’t though. Supposed to be able to climb two 15’ ladders in case the elevator fails.
I’ll pass through Sturgis but will probably stay at Spearfish for a couple night, maybe one in Rapid city. Will book rooms after our Delta 1 tour confirmation. Apparently very tough to get spots.

I lean this way as well. It’s a pretty cool state.

If wifey is a casino buff, plot out the casino stops in the route and then drop her off and come back in 3 hours after your visits with some fellow trapper in the area.
You never know what will happen, Boco had to do it and wandered onto a car dealership lot and drove off with his new truck.

Take a horseback trail ride. Allows you to get out of the rat race, off the paved roads into the backcountry. Guides are generally interesting to talk with. Just a slower pace and get to see it more like the pioneers. Saddle up.

Free ice water

Look up "tourist trap" in the dictionary and there is a picture of Wall Drug.

I looked around on google for casinos in Sioux Falls but they all look like little bars or dumps. The wife will have to drive around after the first day in Sioux, probably go garage sailing like in Escabana….lol.

remember that legal age is 21, a damper for your daughter coming

Custer Park wildlife loop is awesome. Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore, Badlands

Crazy Horse , if you have extra time I guess .

I enjoy riding those backroads just looking at the skyline . Mule deer, pronghorn very prevalent

Aye Aye captain

Custer state Park is nice, lot of stuff to see right around that.

Grand Falls Casino is about 10 to 15 miles east of Sioux Falls, that is a good sized casino.

Jumbo skunks!!

I liked the drive around the Custer wildlife loop and Spearfish canyon. Mount Rushmore was worth it to say you've been there. Bear country was neat. We spent most of our time driving around the backroads and saw plenty of buffalo (close) and alot of deer.

IMO save your money and skip Crazy Horse, that's a tourist trap and they'll never have it done for many lifetimes. Also you won't be anywhere near it either. (about a mile away in the parking lot) You can get a trolley ride to near the base of the mountain (we did) but you're still not close.

Some of you guys are weird. There is so much natural wonders to see out there the heck with the tourist traps unless time is unlimited. Casinos? Yuck. Before I'd go to a casino if go to the Moonshine Gulch Saloon in Rochford and have a cheeseburger.The hike to Haney peak is a great suggestion. It's now called Black Elk peak, the highest spot in SD. There is a fire lookout up there pretty cool. 3 to 4 hour round trip hike. Moderately steep.

Shakey, you better nail it down fast. Motels are nuts out there around the Sturgis rally.

Unfortunately that close to rally time it may be either impossible or super expensive to get rooms now anywhere remotely close to the hills.

I forgot about Needles highway and Haney Peak. We didn't get to do Haneys peak as the fog was so thick the morning we went you couldn't see more than a couple hundred yards if that so we didn't get far from the lake there. On that note it was the closest I'll probably get to a little mule deer buck. My wife was taking her time not to fall on the rocks going to the trail and I saw something move off to the side of us. I looked over and there he was about 75 feet from us just watching. He never did run. That was kinda cool.

Indeed!

Check, out their HOT governor!

Ok, that’s who this Kristie chick is. I was wondering who called me. Wanted to know if Shakey from D&R was coming to SD….thought it might be a scammer.

I second that!!!

Smokin'^^^