South Dakota Part I

Welcome to South Dakota!

I love our summer trips - we are so lucky to be able to explore our great country and discover so many things that we either didn't know about before or didn't fully comprehend how amazing it truly is.  That sentiment sums up exactly what happened for us with South Dakota - If you had asked me what I knew about South Dakota this time last year, I probably wouldn't have come up with much.  That's pretty sad!  But, in our planning for our Summer Trip of National Parks we noticed that Mt. Rushmore wasn't that far away from Grand Teton National Park, and I had always been curious about this famous landmark, so it got included into our plans. And so began our week long exploration into the truly beautiful and interesting Black Hills of South Dakota. 

Our site is AMAZING!!

First we did a search for campgrounds.  Pretty quickly I found a list that included the name "Rush No More" campground.  Obviously, my interest was piqued and I clearly had to click to learn more about this hilariously named park.  I wasn't expecting much with that name, but in our research of the place we discovered that the park was actually pretty amazing. Then we found out that they offer a few sites that come with your own private hot tub! Ok, that sold it for us!!

Wild turkeys + babies went through our site

There weren't any pictures of this sort of site on his webpage, so I was really nervous as to what we were getting ourselves into, but when we got there, all fears vanished.  Our site was AMAZING. We were in a "corner" spot so even if we got neighbors (which we never did) it would still feel very private.  The site was up on the second loop of the campground which meant that we were away from the main part of the campground and surrounded by hills and the Black Hills National Forest - very quiet.  

This hot tub ROCKS!

And the hot tub was the perfect size for the two of us. We learned that they drain and clean the hot tubs after each guest leaves (we actually saw them do this to ours as we were packing up to leave), so that alleviated a lot of fears about other people's random germs floating about. Our site also came with a full sized BBQ and a nice patio set. We had breakfast and coffee outside on that patio every morning - it was a great way to start our days! The whole campground was immaculate.  You could really tell the owner cared about his property and cared about his customers. I would highly recommend this campground (even if you are in a tent!!) if you want to be near Sturgis and the surrounding area. 

Our campground was south of Sturgis, SD by about 5 miles, so it was a good location to go on day trips to a lot of the near by attractions.  We quickly learned that there are a ton of attractions in this area, so we quickly put together a "must do" list.  So, on our first full day we had we drove to the nearby old west town of Deadwood. 

Jason and I have been to a few "old west" type towns before (Tombstone, Bisbee, - a lot of little towns in Arizona, actually) so we sorta knew what to expect.  I generally really love old towns that keep the history and charm alive.

Main street of Deadwood

Deadwood does a pretty good job of feeling like the history is still there without just being a tourist trap (which, of course, it actually is).  The old buildings were in great shape and had a lot of charm. Deadwood is also the only town/city allowed by the state to run casinos, so that should make it a unique draw, but there was something jarring to me to walk into an old building built in 1900 and be bombarded with modern day slot machines.  It was a little weird to me. 

Mt. Moriah Cemetery main entrance

By far my favorite part of Deadwood was visiting Mt. Moriah Cemetery.  It was created in 1878 and has been very carefully maintained.  

Headstone for "Wild Bill" Hickock

The big draw is to see the graves of some of Deadwood's more notable residents, like Wild Bill and Calamity Jane.  It was interesting to see those sites, but what I really loved was seeing all the old head stones.  They were definitely interesting and sometimes (unintentionally?) creepy.

This headstone really creeped us out

Just one of the hundreds of children buried here.  Scarlet fever and diphtheria ran rampant for several years in Deadwood. 

The cemetery is up on a hill overlooking the town, so we were afforded some great views of the whole town before we left. 

View of historic Franklins Hotel (1903) - now the Silverado/Franklin Casino

The next day we decided to get back to nature and drove back into Wyoming to hike around Devils Tower National Monument.

Devil's Tower!!

First off, the tower is very impressive in person. Much larger than I had anticipated (that's what she said. heh)

We LOVE the flowers! And making fudge? We have weird conversations when we hike, apparently. 

There are 8 miles total in hiking around the tower, but we chose the larger hiking path that circles the tower (Red Beds Trail) combined with the closer, more popular paved circle (Tower Trail). All combined it is 4.1 miles.  We started with the Red Beds trail, which was on a very narrow path that cut through tall yellow flowers of some sort (I clearly know my flora! oops).  I usually hike in my various hiking skirts, but this hike really made me wish that I had went ahead and purchased some hiking pants before this trip.  This year we have hiked in more places where we have had to push through plants and I always get antsy about random plants scraping on my legs.  And, in this case, my worry was warranted because the next day I broke out in a rash all on the outside of both of my lower legs!!

Love this balancing rock. And our resulting conversation debating how this clearly igneous rock ended up balancing on this sandstone. 

Besides (or maybe because of) the wildflowers, the Red Beds trail was surprisingly difficult to navigate. The first half is all downhill and I had to constantly be looking down to watch out for unexpected rocks in the path.  I tripped at LEAST 10 times and I was grateful that I was wearing my Teva hiking shoes instead of Teva sandals. 

A cute bumble bee enjoys a thistle and Jason discovers the surface of Mars. 

The second half of the outer circle, is of course, back uphill.  Though it was not that hot outside, the sun felt pretty brutal.  Luckily the uphill portion did not have as much flowers to push through or as many stumbling obstacles for me.

Views of the tower from the path

Despite being more difficult than we had originally bargained for, we really loved the outer circle (Red Beds) hike. There weren't that many people on the trail and we really got some magnificent views of the surrounding area, and the star of the show, the tower.

Pushing through the flowers on the way back up

Once we finished the outer circle (Red Beds trail) we continued on to the tower trail which is a shorter paved trail.  I sorta felt like I should be wearing a sign explaining that we had already completed a longer, harder trail because we got some looks as we went lumping along, all sweaty, complete with our hiking packs right next to people pushing strollers.

Enjoying the paved path of the Tower Trail

Luckily, it wasn't as crowded on the main trail as we feared and once again we were treated to some really lovely views of the tower.  All in all, it was a great hike. I would definitely do it again, especially since I know now what I am getting into. 

PRAIRIE DOG!!!!!

On our way out of the park, we stopped by "prairie dog town" that borders the edge of the park.  I am sure I would feel a little differently if they were as abundant as they used to be (according to the guide we got, the current population is only 2% of what they used to be across the United States just 200 years ago!), but they are seriously cute little rodents!  Previously, I had only ever seen them in zoos, so it was a treat to see them in the wild.

In my next post, I will cover what we did for the rest of the time in South Dakota!!