We're going to be visiting with our RV next week(m-th). It looks like there's a lot of things to do in the general area.

Does anyone have any recommendations for places to go, things to see, maybe a hike or other natural stuff to look at, food to eat, basically anything that will make the trip fun.

Thanks in advance!

I love western South Dakota, so much to see and do.  If you are willing to drive 1-2 hours I would suggest Custer State Park, the Minuteman Nuke Missile silo & visitors center (you need reservation to go into the silo complex & they are usually full so book now), Mt. Rushmore and of course the Badlands.  There's tons of ATV trails and rentals in the area.  Wall Drug was a waste of time, nothing but junk for sale and mall food.

Looks like Sturgis is next week so watch out for all the bikes.

I found Deadwood to be a big disappointment, I was expecting an old west feel but it was nothing but casinos & tourist shops.  The cemetery and street shootouts were the only saving grace.

The ATV trails are awesome. We start out in Hill City and get a side by side for the day. They'll give you a tablet that gives your position on the trail map and tons of shit to discover. Old mines, cabins, look outs, Miners Motel which is a little cave with some old bunks in it which is a easy hike. The side by sides are licensed and can drive on the road for faster trail hopping.
For a more challenging hike, do Black Elk Peak, highest point between the Rockies and the Pyrenees mountains in France. Bring lots of water and hiking sticks as this is a moderately challenging hike. We like to start off at Sylvan Lake. Take trail #9 up and Trail and trail #4 back. You'll probably want 7-10 bottles of water/person and maybe a snack. Hike and views are pretty badass. Sylvan Lake has a very nice and easy trail going around it that's worth the time to do it as a warm up or cool down.

Custer State Park is awesome, as is Wind Cave.
Iron Mountain Rd and Needles Highway when you do your Rushmore visit. Get out at the tunnels, some of them frame Mt. Rushmore and you may miss it if you're going the wrong way.
I typically avoid Deadwood and drive around the tourist strips in other towns. Seen one you've seen them all. Good stops for ice cream. Art galleries are sometimes neat with local stuff.
If you check the other thread in the SD forum "hidden food gems" it has few restaurant favorites in the west half of the state.
There will be an abnormal amount of motorcycles on the road, so watch for them.

Close to deadwood I'd go through spearfish canyon and hike 11th hour, or community caves. Could go up crow peak or old baldy too. Adams museum is cool. Sanford lab is cool. DC booth fish hatchery is neat.

Lot of old mining stuff to see up around there. Beware the motorcycle rally will be starting next weekend. It gets absolutely crazy with fat pigs riding hogs. It's already getting busy and will get more so as the week goes.

So if you're into fat old leathery bodies, hit up sturgis too.

Thanks for the ideas so far.

It looks like we're going to be in deadwood for 3 days, then we'll be heading east, closer to the petrified gardens for a week or so.

I'm excited to check out some nature. Is there anywhere in the area that has a good amount of dinosaur stuff, other fossils or prehistoric human artifacts?

Geology museum at the school of mines. Mammoth site in hot springs. There's also a dinosaur museum by reptile gardens south of rapid and another small one in hill city. Believe there's petroglyph in hells canyon by hot springs.

The smoke is pretty thick outside of deadwood and Leed today. A ridiculous amount of bikes too. Lol

The hills and elevation are no joke. Even with the mighty Cummins, there were several times when I got to be "that guy" in second gear in the right lane doing 45mph.

This area is beautiful though.

Yeah the 2 weeks before and 1 week after the rally you can expect a shitload of bikes everywhere.

Yep.  Used to live in Whitewood.

It's been fun. I was disappointed that the town of deadwood stopped doing the reenactment stuff because of the bike traffic.  It was still fun to walk around town and check it out though.

Today we went to Mt Rushmore and the museum that has the Carrie ingalls stuff in keystone.

We also went shopping at Walmart and Safeway in rapid city. It's a little bit of a different kind of place than I'm used to. It seems very spread out. We found what looked like a cool, older area with a lot of brick buildings that had shops and such in them and I thought about checking it out until I saw some folks sleeping on the sidewalk. Lol

We moved near the badlands NP today. Holy smokes is it hot. Lol. The truck said it was 106° when we pulled in to the campground

Attached File


We're planning on hiking around on Saturday when it cools off. Lol

But it is supposed to rain on Saturday. It will be cooler but the ground in the Badlands will be like walking in silly putty.

Awesome. We'll have to see what happens.

I thought I saw a report that said no rain until Sunday.  

I thought wrong. Looks like thunderstorms and wind.

Perfect RV weather.

I’m one of those bikers
Went through badlands yesterday
But it was a lovely 78

The geology museum was pretty awesome. Lot's of fossils and information, even if it was small.

The mammoth site was one of my favorite stops this summer. Very interesting circumstance to create the situation to begin with, then someone getting lucky enough to stumble onto it and find a way to preserve it.

Thanks for the recommendations!