On our last day in South Dakota we explored three more sites: Wind Cave National Park, Mt. Rushmore National Monument, and Custer State Park. Here’s my quick opinion of each:
Wind Cave National Park
If you’re not on a mission set foot in every National Park, skip this one. It’s small and the namesake cave is not always accessible–during our visit, the elevator was broken so we could not visit the cave. Since we were already there, we took a quick walk to see the natural entrance, then moved on.
Mt. Rushmore National Monument
If you’ve never been, put it on the “if there’s time” list. The carving is cool, but that’s about the only thing to see at this site beyond a few short trails through the surrounding forest. If you’d rather skip the $10 parking fee and still get a good view of Mt. Rushmore, just drive Iron Mountain Road counter-clockwise; the view coming out of the third tunnel is pretty great!
Custer State Park
This park is definitely worth a visit! Our America the Beautiful pass didn’t get us free entry because this is a state park, rather than a national park, but the $20 park fee was totally worth it (and that pass is valid for 7 days so you could easily make this a multi-day stop OR pass your ticket on to someone else so they can enjoy the park for free).
Wildlife Loop
We started our sojourn through Custer State Park with the Wildlife Loop: a scenic drive with common wildlife sightings. This drive did not disappoint–and, y’all, I NEVER see wildlife, so this was exciting! We saw wild donkeys that ate right out of our hand–park staff expressly told us that we could feed them apples and carrots and, as luck would have it, we had just finished a snack of apples and had cores we hadn’t trashed yet. There was even a mama and baby in the bunch!
We also saw several lone bison and a giant herd on the move!
We caught a glimpse (but no photos) of some pronghorn, and saw prairie dogs galore (prairie dogs are to South Dakota as mosquitoes are to Louisiana…everywhere!).
Little Devil’s Tower Trail
Next, we did a 3-mile hike to Little Devil’s Tower. On the way to the trailhead, we passed the lovely Slyvan Lake.
The lower half of the trail was framed by wildflowers and aspen trees. It offered some great views of the valley floor surrounded by towering rock spires.
The middle of the trail transitioned to a more alpine feel, with pine trees and a corresponding fresh scent. In this alpine area, we saw two mountain goats! We’re assuming they are mother and kid, due to size.
Then we started the rock scramble that makes up the last bit. This was more of a scramble than I expected, but that made it fun! Especially for AC, who likes a challenge and is part mountain goat herself, those scrambles were a fun change-up from the steady, uphill trek we’d had so far.
As we scrambled higher, the wind picked up and I almost lost my hat! The views from Little Devil’s Tower were vast and beautiful. We could see Cathedral Spires and Black Elk’s Peak from our perch. We took a few moments to absorb it all and let the wind cool us down. Then we started our descent.
Usually a descent is faster than an ascent, but not this time. Because the scrambles were so steep, I took a very cautious approach on the way down so our walk out took us about the same amount of time as the walk up. The whole hike took us just under 2 hours.
Hayride and Chuckwagon Dinner
We ended that day with a hayride and chuckwagon dinner! The hayride part was underwhelming because we didn’t see any wildlife and it started raining. The dinner was the highlight! Luckily, the rain paused just long enough for us to eat in the open air. We feasted on a menu of well-seasoned, perfectly cooked steak and a slew of cookout-esque sides including baked beans, corn bread, potato salad, cole slaw, watermelon, and cookies.
After that very full day, we returned to a rainy Hipcamp. Apparently, a big storm passed through around 3pm MT, but our little tent held up pretty well! We had a few drips so we tightened the guy lines to make our rain fly more effective, then hit the hay.
Driving through Wyoming
In the morning, we washed our last bit of laundry, packed up the tent, said goodbye to Tammy and her wonderful Hipcamp, went to church in Rapid City, and headed for Wyoming. On our way, we quickly visited Devils Tower, America’s first National Monument. There are multiple origin stories for this monument, each coming from a different Native American tribe, and all involving bears, girls, and a rock/stump that provides safety. You can read those stories here, if you’re interested.
We continued an uneventful ride through the corner of Wyoming to Billings, Montana where we truck-camped for the night.
Until next time,
Charli