South Dakota Posts are a Coming- Overview, Logistics, Mt Rushmore

For the last ten days, Laurie and I were in South Dakota. We spent our time in the Badlands and the southern Black Hills between Mount Rushmore and Wind Cave. I love South Dakota. So often I got asked before I left "What's in South Dakota?" I can tell you... a lot.

There is something for everyone. It is the perfect place for a summer vacation. It is the place to go for the quintessential family road trip. There were cars and campers from every corner of the country. If you have the image of families driving in the old station wagon (or now mini vans and SUV's) driving through pine forests on the way to their campsites. Kids swimming in pine lined lakes and parents driving to tourist traps while the kids fight in the back seat, then you are picturing South Dakota.

Here is how much I love it there. In 2010 I took the trip out west and saw a lot of great places. Anyone that knows me, has heard me say over again "I love the west". Of all of those great places, South Dakota is the first place I have returned to.

Obviously Mount Rushmore is the centerpiece of the tourism in western South Dakota. Over two million visitors visit a year. The tourist town that hosts many of these visitors is Keystone. It is five minutes from the Mount Rushmore parking lot. The larger city in the area is Rapid City. With a population of about 67,000. It has every chain restaurant, motel and fast food joint I know of.  It is about thirty minutes from Mount Rushmore.

Many people chose to camp. Any trip to the area will see hundreds (yes, hundreds) of rented out Cruise America campers along with even more privately owned mobile homes and campers. There are many campgrounds in the area. There are at least three National Forest campgrounds close to Rushmore. There are countless private campgrounds. However, the crown jewel of the South Dakota parks system is Custer State Park.

Cuter is 71,000 acres of ponderosa pine forest and prairie. There is a buffalo herd that can wander through the park. It teams with other wildlife as well. There are multiple campgrounds in the park. This is where we chose to stay for a few nights. We stayed at Game Lodge Campground most nights and spent one night at Center Lake. We spent other nights in the Badlands and Wind Cave National Park, but those will be saved for later posts.


Logistics

We never spent a night in a hotel. We got reservations for our nights in Custer State Park ahead of time. The price is 22/night. We slept in the Badlands for free.

We flew into Denver and rented a car (shuttle service from gate to car rental company) that we bid on with Priceline.com. Our Jet Blue flight into Denver landed at 10:30 am. After we got the car, it is 6 1/2 hour drive through the Colorado, Wyoming, and SD prairie to the good stuff. Beautiful ride.

Our flight home left Denver at 11:11 pm. We arrived back in Boston at 4:15 am Eastern time.

We tried to keep the not fun expenses to a bare minimum (flight, car rental, sleep)  so we would have more money to spend on fun. We put away 20 away each for most weeks of the year to save for the trip. When we had enough money for the flight, we booked it. Same with car rental and camping reservation. What we had left was joint spending money for things like tourist traps, gas, and lunch. If I wanted a T-shirt, it came out of my own spending money, not our joint fund.

There is no shortage for places to eat.We chose to buy lunch most days (usually a burger and fries, since we were craving them). Most every night we made supper at the campsite. We do not use a cooler, but I brought my small portable stove. Our meals rotated between mac and cheese, Stove Top and soup, and pasta and sauce.

Since my favorite breakfast food (bananas) does not travel well, I mostly lived on Pop Tarts in the morning. For snacks we would eat fruit snacks and granola bars.

Mount Rushmore

No, the monument does not take up the whole mountain

 As I said, Mount Rushmore is five minutes away from the tourist town of Keystone, SD. The admission is $11 for a private car. The admission is good for the rest of the calendar year, meaning you can go back multiple times.  We went on our first full day there. We stayed a few hours. There is a trail that gets close to the bottom of the mountain. It is called the Presidential Trail. There is great opportunity to see the memorial from multiple angles. There are quite a few steps leading to the bottom of the mountain, but nothing a normal person can't handle.

We went back later in the evening to watch the lighting ceremony. It is a truly great American experience. Anyone that goes to Rushmore should go back once to see the lighting.

Another extremely important bonus about Rushmore is, it has the best ice cream I have ever had. It is
called Praline Pecan. Simply unbelievable. I also tried their Cookies and Cream and it was also good. Get the ice cream if you go!

Another important tip. The light is much better in the morning and mid day. As the sun moves across the afternoon sky, shadows develop. Big George sticks out overshadowing his more easterly neighbors.

We actually went to Mt Rushmore four times. We went twice the first full day. Then as we were driving by we went two other times for a short amount of time. It is amazing to see those great presidents carved into the mountain. I could not convince any of the rangers to start construction on JFK to Washington's right (our left) but that doesn't mean I didn't try.

I already miss it