Black Hills, South Dakota Vacation Ideas – Reviews and Recommendations

Author’s Notes:
As a brief respite from my usual blog format I will now (and occasionally in the future) post a vacation journal. This one is about my recent trip to the Black Hills area of South Dakota. This is the short version, featuring reviews and recommendations of a few specific places. If you’d prefer to read the long version, which is my write-up of the entire trip, please click here.

Please note regarding the many links: I have no personal or business associations with any of the parks, organizations and businesses featured, other than as a recent or potential customer or visitor. I have tried to always pick the link to the most official website that I can find, but as usual, I cannot be held responsible for any of the content you may find upon clicking external links.

My Favorite Things in Western South Dakota/Eastern Wyoming

Restaurants
Beau Jo’s Pizza in Rapid City. Great for gluten-free* and non-gluten free alike.
Notes: They have locations in Colorado as well. Check out their website for more information.
Our GPS had an older address. At the time of this posting they are at 830 Main Street (Main at 9^th Street) in Rapid City.

* I am gluten-intolerant but not diagnosed with Celiac disease. I cannot vouch for the restaurant regarding any possible cross contamination, but can tell you that I didn’t feel “glutenized” by what I ate on my visit there. I do believe they are careful with their preparation. As always, if you have Celiac Disease, there is a risk of cross contamination.

Drives
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. The Black Hills are all about the scenery. This drive is south of Spearfish. Check out the Roughlock Falls hike along the way. Here is one website with more details:

Iron Mountain Road. This is a portion of the US 16A highway, from near Keystone/Mount Rushmore to the town of Custer, through Custer State Park. Our favourite scenic drive of the trip.

Needles Highway and the Wildlife Loop Road. Both in Custer State Park

Notes: Some of these roads are not suitable for RVs or other large vehicles. Look up the information regarding tunnel sizes. Be very careful with the one-way tunnels.

Things to See
Jewel Caves National Monument. There are three levels of cave tours, with varying lengths and difficulties. We did the mid-level most popular tour, the Scenic Tour. This is a great tour unless you are claustrophobic or have great difficulty with stairs. Even with mild claustrophobia you may be okay as the majority of this tour is in larger caverns. I would never go on a crawling, squeezing-through-rocks tour, but I was generally fine on this one. I did experience some vertigo as it is strange to have no visual cues as to what direction is up/down or sideways.

Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming

If you are able to drive a little further west, I’d recommend this. There are some great colours along the drive and Devils Tower is such an unusual natural feature. There is a prairie dog town to look at, and a few different trails. We did the easiest one, around the base of the tower. It was probably the easiest hike of the entire trip.

Wildlife Viewing
Bear Country USA. A drive-through wildlife park and small zoo. You will definitely see animals, especially bears. Lots and lots of bears. This was well worth the cost.

Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park. The park is a must see anyway. During your visit I recommend this road. Though, we saw bison in several other places as well.

Parks
Badlands National Park. Mostly a drive through park. There are some hiking trails as well. The scenery is surreal.

Custer State Park. As previously mentioned, wildlife, lakes, scenic drives, hikes – you could spend a long time in this park.

Semi-Recommended Things

Reptile Gardens
This is a small zoo, which I felt was a bit overpriced. There are snake, alligator and bird shows. We were able to see the snake and alligator shows and both were better than I had expected. This is more recommended if you have children. If you go, try to see all three shows to get your money’s worth.

Note: While researching this I noted on the website that one admission will give you a re-entry pass if you request it, so consider doing that if you’ll be in the area for a longer time.

Crazy Horse Monument
This is a huge sculpture that is currently under construction. You can see it quite well from roads in the area, so it may not be worth the $10/person entry fee. It is extra for the bus to get a bit closer to the construction site. We didn’t take the bus, so I can’t comment on that. The story behind the sculpture is interesting but this is primarily a museum of Native American art and artifacts, as well as other historical items. There is also a large gift shop and artist’s studio where you can speak to artists while they work. If you love history and museums consider going. It would be less appealing for children.

Note: I later found out there is some controversy regarding whether this undertaking is appropriate, as well as about how the funds from visitors are being used. I’d recommend an internet search before making your decision to go here.

Bear Butte Hike
This is an interesting hike to the top of a small mountain but is not suitable for all people. The majority of the time you will be walking on fist-sized loose rocks. You must focus on every step, taking extreme care not to twist your ankle or otherwise injure yourself. Coming down the mountain was also hard on my knees. There are some very narrow spots as well, where there isn’t room for error or you will be tumbling down the hill. So, if you have ankle or joint problems or are hiking with young children, this is probably not the hike for you. If you are in moderate to good shape and are able to tread extremely carefully, I’d recommend it.

For more details, see the longer write-up in part four.

Mount Rushmore
You’ve seen the pictures everywhere, so you may not need to go there. For me, it wasn’t like the Grand Canyon where pictures don’t do it justice. It is an interesting historical monument and accomplishment, but I didn’t find being there much different from seeing it in pictures.

Not Recommended – I could have skipped this, but you may want to go.

Wall Drug
This place is overhyped – you can’t get within 300 km without seeing their signs cluttering up the highway. It’s a combination of a tourist section of a small town and a mini-mall. It was crowded and there were endless stores packed with kitschy tourist crap. We didn’t look at everything, so there might be something better there that I missed. Parking was free however, so you may want to stop and see it anyhow; but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go there.

There are so many other things that we didn’t have time for or weren’t interested in. For a list of things I want to see in the future, see Part Eleven.

Final Words: There are a few dangers in the area that you may not be familiar with, so I’d recommend looking up more information on: rattlesnakes, mosquitoes/West Nile Virus, ticks/tick-borne illness, mountain lions. The weather is also extremely variable so be prepared for all conditions, especially on hikes.

Be aware of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally when planning your trip, as the population, especially of bikers will swell during this time frame. Accommodation costs will also be significantly higher. This are the dates I found of upcoming rallies:
Aug 4-10, 2014
Aug 3-9, 2015

Again, to read the longer version of our trip, here is Part One.