After leaving the Badlands we headed for the Black Hills! Mountains! Lakes! Rivers! Yeah!
Here are some of the things we’ve done…
1) Find an RV park
We stayed at a nice RV park near Hill City called Rafter J. We got a fairly secluded spot (by RV park standards) and it was nice. This was our base camp for Mt Rushmore and other excursions.
2) Hit Mt Rushmore
It’s a lot different from when I visited as a kid which I remember being similar to the movie North by Northwest. It’s been modernized since then and is very nice. Just 11 bucks per car to get in. We got there about 9:30 and the crowds weren’t bad at all. We hiked the 1.2 mile round trip to the base of the monument then loitered in the gift shops for a bit. We left around 11:30 as the crowds were growing.
3) Go find Buffalo ( Custer state park)
“Zoe, be gentle with the nice buffalo”. We saw probably 4 or 5 times more buffalo in Custer State Park than back in the Badlands. And these guys roamed all over the roads. They got very close.
4) Take scenic drive, squeeze through one lane tunnels
5) Visit Sylvan Lake – used in movie National Treasure II
In the movie, National Treasure II, the group discovers a secret tunnel by a lake behind the Mt Rushmore monument. There is no lake behind Mt Rushmore, but to film the movie they went to Sylvan Lake just a few miles from Mt Rushmore. We visited the lake and saw the area where they filmed the scene. Nice lake, boat rentals, food, market, etc.
6) Visit Crazy Horse
The Crazy Horse monument just a few mile from Mt Rushmore was started in 1948. At this rate it may be completed in 2148, so don’t wait until it is completed before you visit. It was $11 per person to get in, though, we visited on a special day and the rate was 1/2 off. As you can see from this pic, the mountain in the background has a long way to go before looking like the model in the foreground.
The carving is being done all on private money and progresses as money comes in. Their goal is to also have a 4 year university and medical school on the premises. It is worth a visit. We got the re-admit pass so we could come back at 10PM and watch the laser light show that they project up on the Crazy Horse monument. We were treated to a double light show because a big thunder storm was moving in and the laser show was offset by lightning all around us! Very cool!
7) Find secret Lakota Lake
On another one of our scenic drives we saw a sign for Lakota Lake down a dirt road. We drove in and just as we got there a couple of people were leaving. This gave us the entire lake to ourselves. How great is that? Zoe went for a swim. I wish we had brought a canoe! Hey Bren, have you used that new canoe yet? Maybe you could ship it to me in South Dakota! I’ll send you pictures of what it looks like in the water.
8) Move to Deadwood RV park, roast Marshmallows, almost die!
After a couple of days near Mt Rushmore we moved up to Deadwood, SD, also in the Black Hills. We’re staying in Whistlers Gulch RV park. It was a little crowded over the weekend, but now we are all alone! Nice! Wifi is great here so we’re taking some time to upload photos, plan the next locations, make reservations and update blogs.
We should have been concerned when we first drove through Deadwood on the way to the RV park and saw the Dominator parked downtown. The very next night we had a midnight thunderstorm that I was sure would blow the whole RV over. I jumped out of bed from a deep sleep when I heard the sound of massive flapping and banging along with howling wind outside the coach! I ran to pull in the awning which was whipping like crazy and about to rip off the coach. Fortunately the awing is reeled in by a little switch I push near the door (inside)! The storm lasted for about an hour. After the wind died down we got rain and hail!
How much wind does it take to blow over an RV??? That’s a thought that kept running through my head starting about midnight the other night. I found this formula online. I haven’t plugged in the numbers yet, but running it through my head I think my RV will tip over with about 15mph winds! At least it felt that way…
V = SQRT(W*b/{0.00666*l*(h-h2/2)*(h/2+h2/4)})
where
V = wind speed, mph
W = trailer weight, lbs (mine about 10 tons)
b = trailer width (tire center-center), ft (9 ft)
l = trailer length, ft (32 ft)
h = trailer height (from ground), ft (12.5 ft)
h2 = tire height, ft (2.5 ft)
But before the winds hit we got to enjoy a fire and roasted marshmallows.
9)Visit Spearfish, take scenic drive up Spearfish Canyon
Spearfish is a small town north of Deadwood, but quite a bit larger. Not only are there several good fast food places for lunch you can start your tour of Spearfish Canyon about a block off main street. 
Drive along a clear river up into the tree filled mountains. We sat on this deck and just watched the river flow by for a while. We also watched a fly fisherman who I think was a rookie. Not that I would know, but he just kept whipping the pole around. Any fish would see that and run..
This is a very clean little picnic area in the canyon. Zoe and I hopped in the crystal clear water and nearly froze our legs off!
There are some junky and some very fancy cabins tucked up in the canyon too. “Honey, what’s the number of that realtor we saw in town”?
10) Hike up beautiful trail to Aspens
Couldn’t take the dog on this trail so I just hiked up by myself a half mile or so to look around. Wow!
11) Make a Bear Grylls fishing pole and go fishing!
MacGyver’d me up a fishing pole from old fishing line that Zoe found on her nose after swimming, a bottle cap, a piece of corn found on the ground and a stick! Now I can feed the family!
Crossed the bridge, did a little fishing. Unfortunately there were no fish anywhere in the river (Maybe ’cause I copied the fly-fisherman and kept swinging my bait back and forth)
12) Drive down National Park road 134
Turned off on a random national park road. Passed logging trucks, saw more beautiful meadows and trees and Does with their little fawns.
No pictures, but it looked like this – Gorgeous.
13) Start looking for real estate to buy… this place is great.
“Really Honey, what’s that real estate number!”
14) Watch a shootout in Deadwood – Take care of Wild Bill Hickok myself!
Play the videos below… The first one was automatically made by Google Photos, the second was automatically made by Magisto.
Did you know that in the 1870’s you could by that Postal Service Carriage you saw in the video, for $56 through the Sears (or Wards?) Catalog and start your own postal delivery business… There you go… research it…