move around or stay put

Hi everyone, My husband and I are in the beginning planning stage of our trip to Mt rushmore and the surronding sites. My question is should we move every couple of days or stay in one place the whole trip? Any information will be helpful. We are planning to fly into rapid city and stay 5-7 days.

move around or stay put

The nice thing about the Black Hills is that you can feasibly stay in one place and see a majority of the sights easily. The attractions are relatively close together.

With 5 days, I%26#39;d definitely stay in one place, but with longer, (i.e. 7 days) you could consider dividing your time between the northern Black Hills and the Central Black Hills. Particularly, I%26#39;d do this if you are interested in seeing Devil%26#39;s Tower, WY, which is very worthwhile. You can stay in Deadwood, Lead or Spearfish and do a very easy 1/2 day trip out there from any of those towns. If you stay further south and want to see the tower, you would probably use up most of a day out and back, but you could always incorporate Deadwood and Spearfish Canyon coming and going. I would stay no longer than 2 nights in the northern area.

In the central Black Hills, most people stay in Keystone, Hill City or Custer. All are fine bases location wise.

Do you have a list of things you want to see? What are your interests? If you have a tentative itinerary, you could post that and get suggestions from those of us who have seen the area. Also, if you haven%26#39;t already done so, be sure to get the SD travel guide (travelsd.com)

Enjoy your trip.

move around or stay put

So far the things that we want to see are

Mt rushmore, crazy horse, custer state park, hotspring,badlands, minuteman missile site,wind and jewel caves, devils tower,spearfish and any other sites worth visiting.

What I would like is if someone could offer how to take all those sites and suggest some way to put a vacation together. I know I am asking alot, so any help would be appreciated.

The only place I am not familiar with is the Minuteman Missle Site, so I will leave that one to someone else who is knowledgeable.

Since you are looking to see Devil%26#39;s Tower and Spearfish, I%26#39;d try to go for 6 nights, 7 days and spend a couple of nights in the northern area.

Do you know what time your flight will arrive into Rapid City? The Deadwood area is about an hour%26#39;s drive from there. You could head right for that area upon arrival and possibly spend a little time in the casinos (if that interests you) and see some of the ';shootouts.'; If you arrive early enough, you could visit the Adams House/Museum or see Wild Bill%26#39;s/Calamity Jane%26#39;s graves.

The next day, you could allot time to see Devil%26#39;s Tower and make the drive through Spearfish Canyon. You could spend the evening in Deadwood seeing anything you might have missed.

After this, you could head for the central area (Hill City, Keystone, or Custer).

Here%26#39;s some approximate times you could spend at the places you have listed as must sees:

Mt. Rushmore--1/2 day for outdoor viewing, plus returning for the night ceremony

Crazy Horse---1/2 day (Less if you don%26#39;t have interest in seeing the Native American Museum)

Badlands--Day Trip--you will probably be back to your hotel between 3 and 4, depending on how early you leave

Custer State Park--Devote one day, either continuous or split up. You will want to spend time seeing the Needles Hwy, Wildlife Loop, Iron Mountain Rd, and Sylvan Lake. The Lake is a great place to picnic.

Wind %26amp; Jewel Caves--The tours at each take 2 hours. Wind Cave is a national park that joins the wildlife loop at Custer. Jewel Cave is a national monument that has little to do on the surface. If you go to Jewel in the summer, I%26#39;d book advance reservations for a tour. If you don%26#39;t you will probably have to wait a few hours for a tour. This can be a time waster when it doesn%26#39;t have to be.

Hot Springs..Is there anything special you want to see in the town? We went here, not to see the actual Hot Springs (I am not sure where they are..locals can help here), but we went to visit the Mammoth Site (neat if you enjoy prehistoric sites) and the Wild Horse Sanctuary, which is worthwhile if you enjoy seeing mustangs up close. It is pricey, however. Hot Springs is also pretty close to Wind Cave.

I hope this helps you somewhat. It%26#39;s not a piece by piece itinerary, but sometimes I hesitate on overplanning. The way I might do something might be too much/too little time for you. Others, however, may very well have a perfect plan for you. You are really focusing on the major must sees, and I know you will have a wonderful time.

Thank you so much for all that information that you shared. Yes it was very helpful in my early stage planning. I have not made flight arrangements yet, but the flights that I am looking at would be arriving at 2:00pm in Rapid City. Will be flying in from Boston. We want to go around the last week of August or beginning of September 2009. Once I put my itinerary together I will post it and would want to hear what you think. Again thanks for you reply

I think that you should spend about 4 days in the Keystone area and then another 2 days in the northern part-Deadwood or Spearfish. We love the K Bar S Lodge in Keystone. Great views, good breakfast and centrally located for seeing Mt. Rushmore, caves, and Custer state park. Enjoy your trip. We were there in June.

K Bar S gets GREAT reviews on this site, and it looks very nice from the website. When we visted in 2006, we stayed at Roosevelt Inn, also in Keystone, and really enjoyed it. The Roosevelt does have a small indoor pool (K Bar S does not--if that is important to you--it would not matter to me personally, but I have a 10 year old who likes to have a poo1!) The Roosevelt has family suites that are nice if you are looking for extra room, and they have King rooms if you are looking for those. There are basic double queen rooms also, and many have balconies. Big Time Pizza is on site and is one of the best pizzerias I have experienced. The property is very clean.

I am partial to staying in Keystone. As CeCe said, it%26#39;s central to everything. Some find Keystone%26#39;s ';boardwalk atmosphere'; too touristy. Souvenir shops abound! However, you really don%26#39;t have to spend a whole lot of time in town.

Have fun planning, and feel free to come back with more questions.

Thanks for all your suggestions, This should make my planning so much easier than on my own. My husband and I are thinking K bar S lodge. We think it would add to the feel of the area. Besides the sites we want to visit that I mentioned, we also want to hike and see as much wildlife as we can. In 2006 we visited Yellowstone and absolutely put that vacation as one of our favorites. Is the end of August and beginning of September a good time to visit as far as crowds and weather? Again thanks for all of you who have responed.

We went at the exact time you are planning in 2006. We arrived late August and left on the Friday before Labor Day. The crowds were light; the entire trip was very enjoyable. If you liked Yellowstone, you will definitely enjoy it here. We have also been to both and rate Yellowstone #1 and the Black Hills #2.

The other nice thing about travelling that time of year...the kids are back in school in a lot of areas. Even better, we found the rates lower at some of the hotels in SD. Some drop their rates in mid August.

Keep the questions coming!

We were there the first of Sept. this year and stayed at the K Bar S. If you check the reviews there are some great pictures. It was a good location and very nice place to stay. We were there for 3 days on the way to YNP and was able to get in a lot. We went to Mt. Rushmore, Custer Park, Needles Hwy, Crazy Horse, Hill City. Also ate at the pizza restaurant at the Roosevelt Inn and it was great. Had dinner at the Alpine Inn in Hill City - a must. Have put SD back on our list of ';to dos'; to go to Deadwood, Sturgis, Devils Tower, Badlands, Wall.