We knew a little about Rapid City, or more accurately we knew Mt. Rushmore was somewhere around there. I know, its a little sad that between me and my wife that’s the best we could do, but then again, isn’t that a good reason to travel the county in an RV?
To be fair I am a bit of a nerd and did quite a bit of research in the few months before we went. I’d seen the awesome looking boondocking site at the Badlands. I’d also seen “Less Junk, More Journey” in Deadwood.
Suffice to say, there is so much to love about the Rapid City area that in our 3 weeks we only just squeezed in our wish list. It’s on our “must visit again” list.
Thinks to see
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Definitely a must-see on any itinerary that goes near South Dakota. It is very well organized with many ticket booths at the entrance. It does cost money, even if you have a National Park Pass. You can reuse the ticket for multiple visits. There is space for RV parking, the largest we saw was a 40′ coach with a TOAD, but as long as it’s not a really, really busy time of the day it looks like most RV’s will fit. If entering the site with an RV just keep to the right where there are marked lanes for RV’s to enter.
For an unforgettable view of Mt Rushmore drive into Custer State Park, then take the Iron Mountain Road. It is a very scenic drive with 3 “pigtails” where you drive over a bridge then around a nearly 360 degrees bend, so far that you go under the bridge you were just on. You also pass through 3 tunnels drilled through rock. The last tunnel gives you a fabulous view of Mt Rushmore in the distance. It took us 2 trips to get the photo above, the first time it was covered in fog!
Crazy Horse Memorial
Not far from Mt Rushmore is Crazy Horse Memorial. It is a work in progress, but don’t let that delay you as they have been working on it for 60 years and it could take them another 100 years to finish. The objective is to create a monument that celebrates American Indian heroes. The scale of the project is enormous.
Entrance money not only does towards construction, but it also supports a museum and college scholarships for America Indians. We think its a worthy cause. We didn’t really see any RV parking, other than for perhaps a smaller Class C.
Talking about donations, you can make a $125 donation and go up to Crazy Horse’s face and get a tour of the construction. You only live once, so we happily made the donation and enjoyed the in-person visit to the big guy!
Custer State Park
My life has been Bison deficient. I am in awe of the thought that there were once millions of American Bison wandering freely around the American plains. Unfortunately, there is no truly wild Bison anymore, but Custer State Park is as close as you can get to understanding what it must have been like. The park has around 1,500 Bison. They are rounded up towards the end of each year, and maybe we will plan to attend in the future to see the roundup. They assess how many head can be supported in the park and auction off the excess.
Seeing a herd of Bison just going about their lives is awesome. But, they are living in a large area so you cannot guarantee seeing more than black dots in the distance. Most days it seems there are some or sometimes a lot hanging out near or on the road. Look out for the traffic jams! Don’t miss the Burro (wild donkey) and Pronghorn too. We also saw a wild turkey with chicks!
There is an annual South Dakota State Park pass that is $30. We camped in a state park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and bought the pass, so for us, the entrance was free.
Badlands National Park
This is an interesting area, known for its beauty and the fossils that have been found here. Millions of years ago the ground was raised, then errosion created interesting shapes and colors. As can be seen in the photo above, big horn sheep abound. There is a loop road with many pull-offs and parking spots.
There is a well known and boondocking site here called Nomad View. Its literally livign on the edge, with fabolous views; the photo above was taken there. It’s easy to find when you are close because from the road the parked RV’s can be seen on the horizon.
Cathedral Canyon
A fabolous drive. We drove through in the warm light of early evening. Definitely worth the drive and it is free as it doesn’t pass through any park checkpoints. As a bonus, by the end of the drive it was dusk and we saw lots of deer and even a solitary male Bison laying down in a clearing.
Blackhills – Deadwood
There are two reasons you may have heard of Deadwood. Wild Bill Hickock was killed here, famous in his own liftime and rumoured to have killed 100 men. But if you are a HBO viewer its likely just as much because of the popular “Deadwood” TV series.
It’s an interesting place to visit to get the feeling of a wild west town. There are two competing places that claim to be the saloon where Wild Bill was killed!
Blackhills – Spearfish
To us the reason for visiting was to drive Spearfish Canyon, which is stunning. Take the 14A from Deadwood/Lead to Spearfish.
We ate at Redwater Kitchen. The food was excellent and sensibly priced. Honestly it was a delight to find a very modern menu in the wilds of Rapid City! Recommended.
Blackhills – Sturgis
If you are a motorcycle fan, the you may already know of Sturgis as the location for a massive motorcycle rally. It is largely a town defined by the rally and it has a lot of motorcycle related stores and paraphenalia year round. If you are a fan, then its Meca, but if not it’s little more than a curiosity and probably not worth visiting.
Mammoth Dig
This is a world famous site. Basically a water filled hole that Mammoths and creatures fell in too, but couldn’t climb out of the slippery sides. A rough estimate is that there are 300,000 years of accumulated bones and silt. The guided tour gives a very feel for what happened and the status of the dig. Suffice to say, its a slow process and if you are lucky you will be there when the slow dig is taking place. If you have seen the La Brea Tar Pit’s in Los Angeles, then its a similar experience, although I don’t regret having seen both.
Campgrounds
Stayed at 2 campgrounds.
Rushmore Shadows Resort
A resort with members who pay about $6,000 to join and can then stay free at this and a few other campgrounds for two weeks, with one week away before being able to return. If you happen to live by some of the resorts and don’t really trvel much, then perhaps its worth it. For nomads you are just not going to use it enough to make it worthwhile.
Anyway it’s a pleasant campground, a tad expensive at $70/d though, we took the option of 3 free nights if we attended the sales presentation. With a 1 week stay tha made it more reasonable. I’d stay again to be relatively close to Rapid City, but there are plenty of other parks to choose from.
Rafter J Bar Ranch
We loved this place! It has good gravel sites, FHU and plent of open space for walking the dogs. It is also centrally located for Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer State Park, Hill City, etc., but not redicoulously far from places like Rapid City, Spearfish, etc.
Places to eat
Powder House near Custer/Keystone is primarily a steak restaurant. And their steaks are excellent! Definitely recommented.
Redwater Kitchen in Spearfish, modern menu, well presented.