Itinerary Suggestions Needed: Badlands & Black Hills

In mid-July my wife and I will be spending 5 nights %26amp; 4+ days in the Badlands %26amp; Black Hills area. I’m hoping some of those experienced in traveling the area can help me efficiently use our time there but based around overnight accommodations that are pretty much set in stone.

Day 1: We’ll be driving from central Iowa and have plans to stay the night at Wall, SD. My thought was to take I-90 and then the Badlands Loop 240 and arrive at Wall that night. A 600 mile day but I know we pick up an hour going into Mountain time.

Day 2: Staying the night in downtown Deadwood.

While we will be staying in Deadwood 2 nights, we don’t need to arrive there until mid to late afternoon of Day 2 so can spend most of Day 2 site-seeing along the way from Wall, SD.

Day 3: Staying the night in downtown Deadwood.

My thought on Day 3 was to take a day trip to Devils Tower via Spearfish Canyon. Comments?

(My better-half will want to spend an hour or so per evening in the casinos and I want to see the cemetery but we don%26#39;t plan to be spending a ton of time in Deadwood itself. Good idea or bad idea?)

Day 5: Staying the night at a Hill City B%26amp;B.

Day 6: Staying the night at a Hill City B%26amp;B.

Day 7: We leave early for Colorado.

Places to see on my list (comments and suggestions encouraged) included the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer Park, Sylvan Lake, Needles Highway, the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, Bear Country?, perhaps one of the caves, what else? . . . Too much? Too little?

Only very moderate hiking is an option for my wife.

If any of you would be able to help me fill these days in a logical sequence, I’d very much appreciate your input.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Arlo from Iowa

Itinerary Suggestions Needed: Badlands %26amp; Black Hills

The only thing I can point out is that none of your destinations on the list really fall on your trip between Wall and Deadwood. Straight through, Wall to Deadwood is only about 1.5 hours.

To fill that time on Day 2, you could try several things.

Bear Country would be the closest of the sites on the list.

You could go all the way to Devils Tower. It%26#39;s probably going to be a 2.5 hour drive from Wall.

You could stop in Rapid City--try a stop downtown for lunch and a stop at the Prairie Edge store and take a drive of Skyline Drive. Dinosaur Park is a fun little stop.

You could drive the Fort Meade National Scenic Byway by Sturgis.

Keep in mind that combining Devils Tower with Spearfish Canyon isn%26#39;t absolutely necessary. If you have two days, splitting the sites up gives you less tiring trips. You could spend the afternoon of Day 2 in Spearfish Canyon. Stopping at three main waterfalls (Roughlock, Spearfish and Bridal Veil) takes time. A great gravel road drive is to the top of Cement Ridge Lookout in Wyoming a few miles west Roughlock Falls.

Decent museums that could fill your time include the Wounded Knee Museum in Wall, The Journey in Rapid City and The Adams Museum in Deadwood.

Itinerary Suggestions Needed: Badlands %26amp; Black Hills

While enjoying everything that Spearfish Canyon has to offer and then over to Devils Tower for another wonderful experience think about coming back on SD WHY 34 to Belle Fourche. This is another wonderful drive that will allow you to stop at the Aladdin General Store and then head into Belle Fourche. Belle Fourche is the Geographic Center of the Nation and dedicated a new monument last August and will be dedicating the avenue of flags in June. Definitly worth the time to stop by and see. You can also check out the Tri-State Museum which has free admission as well as the Johnny Spalding Cabin at the same site as the Monument and museum. If you are into Geocashing...Belle Fourche has many geocash sites for you to choose from. From Belle Fourche the drive back to Deadwood is only 30 minutes. Making a big loop for the days activities would prevent you from back tracking over the same roads and allowing you to check out a few more of South Dakota%26#39;s hidden wonders.

Overall, your plan isn%26#39;t bad at all. I would take Accomodator%26#39;s advice on seeing Bear Country enroute to Deadwood from Wall, or you could just head on to Devil%26#39;s Tower. Your time in Deadwood is fine, I think. I would add the Adams House/Museum to your list of activities in Deadwood.

When visiting Mt Rushmore, you have probably seen posters recommend seeing it both during the day and evening. This is really great advice, and Hill City isn%26#39;t that far from the monument.

I would add the wildlife loop in Custer SP to my list of activities. It%26#39;s a fun ride, especially at dusk or dawn. You will see prairie dogs, wild burros, pronghorn, deer, big horned sheep, and bison. If you decide to see a cave, Wind Cave National Park joins the wildlife loop. I personally preferred the formations in Jewel Cave, but if you decide to add a cave, go to nps.gov and look at the formations for each cave to see which ones seem more appealing to you. Since it sounds like you are doing minimal hiking, you might have time to add things here and there.

The Mammoth Site is a bit further away from the rest of your activities, but if you enjoy wild horses, you can visit the Wild Horse Sanctuary nearby. It is a bit pricey, but the tours are well done and informative since the groups that go in are quite small.

I would see how time permits and do what you enjoy. You really can%26#39;t go wrong in this area. The nice thing is that there are many great attractions located in a small area. Enjoy your trip and feel free to ask additional questions.

Some very helpful suggestions here. Please keep them coming. Having not been in the area before, I am a bit challenged figuring out what sites to assign to which days without some days turning out too ambitious and others too little. Some places we want to see fit together in the same day better than others I%26#39;m sure.

I had figured after leaving Wall on the morning of Day 2, we would want to knock out some of the ';must see'; locations on the way to Deadwood. What about a Day 2 that would take us from Wall to the Fort Hays Dances With Wolves Film Set (breakfast), then to Bear Country, then to Mt. Rushmore to take care of the day-time visit. Then follow route 385 up to Deadwood?

For Day 3 I like the suggestion of Spearfish Canyon, Devil%26#39;s Tower and then back to Deadwood via Route 34.

Days 4 and 5 while based in Hill City will be devoted to Custer State Park, Crazy Horse, a night-time visit back to Mt. Rushmore, the Mammoth site, the Wildlife Loop, perhaps the Wild Horse Sanctuary, maybe Jewell cave. 1880 train. Can we get all this in in two days without running ourselves ragged?

Thanks again for all the good input.

Your days 4 %26amp; 5 might be a little bit busy, but if you are mainly just driving through Custer, you can probably accomplish most of the things on your list. Getting out and hiking is what can take up time, but I know you mentioned that you won%26#39;t be doing any major hiking.

You will probably spend at least a 1/2-3/4 of a day heading down to Hot Springs and seeing the Mammoth Site and possibly the horse sanctuary.

Do you plan on going into Crazy Horse or seeing it from the road? I would recommend going inside, but some feel it%26#39;s overrated and overpriced. There%26#39;s a nice native American exhibit, and the story behind the memorial is really interesting. By just seeing it from the road, you miss all that. If you go inside, plan on at least a couple of hours there. I know they will most likely never finish it, but it%26#39;s interesting nevertheless.

If I cut anything, I%26#39;d probably eliminate the train ride. It%26#39;s nice, but I%26#39;d do it only if time permits.

About Jewel Cave...is your wife able to do steps without much difficulty? The tour isn%26#39;t difficult, but I would imagine that for a person with any kind of arthritis/knee issues, the 700+ steps could be challenging. Just a thought to consider. The steps are spread out and really not steep, but there are quite a few of them.

I%26#39;m not familiar with Fort Hayes, so maybe someone else could comment on your day 2 plan.

Hope this helps some.

Good point about the caves and lots of steps. I was thinking a cave tour would be a good place to cool off in July but a lot of steps won%26#39;t work for my wife so we%26#39;ll probably have to pass on that stop. More time for other things though.

The 1880 Train would no doubt be fun but we%26#39;re hoping to ride the Royal Gorge train in Canon City, Co on the 2nd leg of our trip so may pass on the 1880 unless we end up with some time to fill.

Thanks for all the good suggestions and if there are other thoughts by anyone, please pass them along. We%26#39;re really looking forward to this trip in mid-July.

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