Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave National Park was the best "managed cave" that we saw on our trip. Our tour was fun and not to short, and we saw several cave formations. The visitor center has enough inside to make a worthwhile stop for those without time for a tour.

Currently the cave is about 135 miles long. The crazy thing about its length, is that it is under about 1 square mile of prairie. Not a whole lot of geographical sprawl, but intensely packed in that area!

The original hole is pretty small. It's about as big around as a basketball. It's the only known natural entrance to Wind Cave. As the cave "breathes" or adjusts to air pressure differences between the outside and inside air, the windspeed coming out of the cave can get over 35 mph!

Inside the cave we saw cave popcorn, created as the rock "sweats" out the calcium carbonate.

There were large panels of "boxwork" as well. I like caves!

Nearest City: Hot Springs, SD

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Time Needed: 2 hours (if doing the short tour), adjust accordingly if doing a longer tour.

Difficulty: Easy

Kid Friendly: Yes

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Custer State Park Wildlife Loop

The Wildlife Loop at Custer State Park was pretty fun. Highlight of the drive? The friendly Burros.
The burros are the decendants of donkeys used by early prospectors in the Black Hills. A few escaped or were turned loose. Their decendants now wander up to cars bumming a handout.

Warning! If you don't want a donkey to stick his head in your car, roll up your window like these folks! The burros are VERY friendly and have been trained by countless tourists to hit people up for munchies.

The large herds of bison are fun too. We were lucky and a few herds walked all around are car and over the roadways.

Enjoy the drive!

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Time Needed: 2-3 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Kid Friendly: Yes

Additional Info: Costs $6/adult, or $15/carload.

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

Minuteman Missile NHS is east of Wall, SD, roughly around the east entrance to Badlands National Park. It may be hard to spot, but for history buffs, it's a neat stop. We stopped by HQ, watched a video, then went out to the site.


There's not much on the surface, but underneath is an 80' deep silo that now holds a dummy missile. We met a former missileer who was giving a tour and got to visit with him for a little bit. Crazy Cool!

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Difficulty: Moderate- can be difficult to find. Tours may be challenging to book.

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Wall Drug

Wall Drug- the definitive tourist trap. We stopped by, and sure enough, Wall Drug is the town of Wall, South Dakota. Lots of trinkets and everything else. Home of free ice water and bathrooms.

Nearest City:Wall, SD

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Difficulty: Easy

Kid Friendly: Absolutely not. Too many things for them to grab and want!

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Mt. Rushmore National Memorial

We almost didn't go into Mount Rushmore. You can see it from the road. Technically it's free, but it costs $10 to park (no discounts given). Our parking fee was good for the year, but when you're from out of state you don't exactly plan to come back before the next year. But we're glad we stopped.

Most of the other tourists had left, so it wasn't that crowded. The hall of flags was neat.


We took a walkway up closer to the figures, but couldn't get very close. I'm glad to be an American! The Founding Fathers had tremendous vision and did their best to create a government that allowed as much freedom as possible within a government system. I appreciate their effort and am blessed by their sacrifice and the sacrifice of others to maintain it.

On the way out, we saw a momma and baby mountain goat. (I love this picture!)

This one was cool too.
Unfortunately someone (failing to heed several signs) came in with a dog and scared the goats away.

Nearest City: Keystone, SD

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Time Needed: 90 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Kid Friendly: Yes

Additional Info: $10 Parking Fee.

The Mammoth Site

We stopped at the Hot Springs Mammoth Site. Apparently a long long time ago, this was the site of a sinkhole. Columbian mammoths that had been exiled from their groups wandered around, found it, then tried to get to the water in the bottom. After drinking, they'd try to get out, find the walls to steep, so they'd die. They've found parts of at least 58 mammoths at the last count.

Many of these bones are still in their original places- awesome!

This is a picture of a mammoth footprint. He'd step in the sediment, then pull out his foot. The turbulence would remain behind, showing where he had stepped.

Nearest City: Hot Springs, South Dakota

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Time Needed:1 Hour

Difficulty: Easy

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Additional Info: Cost $8/Adult

Jewel Cave National Monument

Jewel Cave was interesting, but we definitely had better stops on our South Dakota trip. We took the short cave tour, and basically got to go inside one room of the cave. That was it. Going inside the cave was good, but it would have been a lot better if we could have seen more of the cave.

There are a few interesting things that we learned though. Have you ever wanted to know the difference between a National Park and a National Monument? The difference is their objective. National Parks seek to send as many people through as they possibly can. You can show up, book a tour, and be good to go. National Monuments seek to preserve and protect the site. That means that tour groups are limited sometimes. If you show up late, you may not get a tour at all. One positive thing though is that you can reserve tickets for National Monuments a couple weeks in advance.

What this means for you: If you're planning to see Jewel Cave NM and Wind Cave NP on a trip to the Black Hills in July, you will get to see Wind Cave no matter what. If you call a few weeks ahead and reserve a tour ticket, you will get to see Jewel Cave. If you don't call ahead and show up they'll tell you that you can be on the 2 day waiting list.

Nearest City: Custer, SD

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Jasper Cave

Most of the time, seeing a dead and rotting cow in the middle of the road is not a good sign. Sometimes it is though. If I'm looking for solitude and see a dead cow, I think I'm on the right track. When I was looking for Jasper Cave, and saw the dead cow, it was definitely a good thing. Caves are something that are best for small groups. The vehicle tracks in the road next to the cow plainly indicated that, on this visit, I wouldn't have to share the cave with others.

We wandered past the cow, along the road that cut across the side of the hill. Dropping down a draw, we saw the cave entrance. As I approached it and got close to it, I was amazed at the wind that was rushing out of the entrance. Although the entrance is small, clearly Jasper Cave is quite extensive.

Climbing inside, the passage necks down to about 2 feet x 2 feet in several spots within the first hundred feet. It's not a cakewalk for the claustrophobic.

I ranged downward, more deeply into the heart of the earth. Ladders appeared beneath my feet. Deeper still I wandered. Along the walls were large crystals. The crystals were dirty and dusty.

I didn't explore the whole thing, just enough to make me want to. Caves rock!

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Difficulty: Moderate/Difficult

Kid Friendly: No

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The Crazy Horse Memorial/Monument

As a dirtbag vacationer, there was no way I was going to pay $20 to go see the Crazy Horse Memorial. Since it is visible from the highway, we took a picture from the highway and called it good. If you have a higher spending tolerance, click on the link below for more information and details about the monument.

Nearest City: Custer, SD

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Cost: $10/adult or $27/carload/ kids under 6 are free

Additional Info: The Crazy Horse Memorial

Black Hills Sunset

One of the nights we were camping had a spectacular sunset. I took several pictures and wanted to share them. Good times!

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Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park is beautiful. It's a park that is mostly done from a car. We did a few short hikes to the Notch, the Window, and the Hole in the Wall (or something like that). We also stopped at several view areas to get out and read the signs.

I found it interesting that there is a high plain and low plain portion of the park, with the badlands being the band between the two. The upper portion seemed more dry and desolate, while the lower portion had more grass and vegetation.

There is a herd of Desert Bighorn Sheep that roam the park. We were fortunate to see some of them. They were resting on the side of the road.

The Notch Trail was the best hike, but I wouldn't put it on a list of best hikes in national parks.

The stair/ladder on the notch hike was pretty cool though. Two cables go from the top of on embankment to the bottom, with large timbers between them, making stairs on the lower end that transition to a ladder at the upper end.

The erosion that shows up at places in the park is pretty impressive.

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Teepee Canyon Agate Beds

The Teepee Canyon Agate Beds are about 2 miles west of Jewel Cave National Monument. Take one of the Forest Service Roads to the North for about half a mile, and get out and start looking. We found several really pretty rocks in the area, but the agate pieces we found were small. We talked to others who told us of an agate the size of a canteloupe was found last year. That's rockhounding; some days you get lucky, other days you don't go home with much, but had fun anyway.

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Ice Cave

The Ice Cave is in the western Black Hills, not really close to anything. There was a big fire in the area several years ago, so instead of driving through pine forests on the way out, the drive is largely along barren hillsides littered with black charcoal stumps.


The cave isn't very deep, but is impressive none-the-less. When we visited, there wasn't any ice inside, and nearby we flushed a small flock of grouse.
We saw 2 bats clinging to the ceiling. After looking around a little bit, we ate a snack at the entrance, then walked back to our car.

This last picture is from the back of the cave looking toward the entrance.

You can drive most of the way to the cave with a 2 wheel drive, low clearance vehicle.

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Spokane Ghost Town

The ghost town of Spokane is within 10 miles of Mt. Rushmore. There are several buildings still standing, as well as some old abandoned vehicles. We arrived just about sundown, so didn't have very much time to look around before it got dark, but quickly decided that this place is COOL!

Our favorite buildings were an old home that lots of small trees have grown up around, and an old school building.

The next time I'm in South Dakota, I'll definitely be back with more time in the daylight to look around.

Nearest City: Spokane Creek, SD

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Time Needed: 1 hour

Difficulty: Easy

Kid Friendly: Maybe

Additional Info: Spokane Ghost Town