Since we'd both been to South Dakota before, we didn't feel any need to go to Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse. For most people, having been to Devil's Tower would fall into that same camp but I absolutely adore Devil's Tower and have been 4 times now. So we headed out on that long drive first thing Tuesday. Weather was gorgeous, much cooler than the day before in North Dakota. We walked the Red Beds Trail which is about 2.8 miles and goes along a much wider and wilder loop than the very short paved trail that winds directly around the base of the rock. Since the park ranger said parking was limited (it was busier than you might expect for a mid-September Tuesday), we opted to park at the picnic area at the very bottom of the entire area near the Prairie Dog village. This added a stiff hike up the flanks of the butte before we could join the 2.8 mile loop and since we enjoyed it so much we went a little more than a complete circle on the loop to take the Valley View trail back down to the car instead of the shorter steeper one we came up. It was a pure joy being there. After the hike we had an excellent lunch at Diamond Bar near the park entrance.
After our hike and lunch we headed into Deadwood South Dakota to do some playing at the casinos. Tin Lizzie casino was a nice enough place and had a lot more current games than I remember from years ago (even relative to how long ago that was). It rained pretty good that afternoon.
The drive back to Hill City was mostly on US-385, one of the main routes North and South through the Black Hills. They are currently working on about 15 miles of US-385 between Deadwood and Hill City all at once And I don't mean a little guard rail and paint work. That road is down to gravel in several places totaling probably 4 miles. And what isn't gravel is a mess with swerving lanes and no shoulder etc. We even saw a gigantic excavator tipped over with its tracks pointing towards the sky after it seemingly fell into a ditch or something. I'm amazed that they wouldn't have something more detailed and descriptive than a normal 'road work ahead' and a lane restriction sign to prepare and/or deter people from embarking on that drive. Since it was evening when we went through it was extremely quiet with almost no other cars so it was more a curiosity than hazard. I hope their
plans for that road are worth it. All the roads in South Dakota (construction zone excepted) have been beautifully maintained.
Wednesday we were torn between trying to a boundary stretching hike or a more relaxed day. Since it had rained, the ~8 mile and 1700 feet elevation trail I was contemplating wasn't appealing since people talked about how muddy it got on Alltrails. That left 'Trail 9' which would take us to Mount Rushmore via a 9 mile, 2500 vertical foot climb. That just sounded like too much so I put together a day for us in Rapid City instead. Rapid City is, by far, the largest town in Western South Dakota. In total size it's not too far off from what my hometown of Eugene Oregon was when I was a child.
Our first stop was Black Hills Bagels which was delicious and SO much better than the bagel we had in Redmond Oregon earlier in our trip. After breakfast we walked around a park in Rapid City that features an elaborate series of decorative canals that reroute some of the flow of Rapid Creek. I can't think of another city park with such extensive use of moving water as part of the fabric of the entire park. Those little canals were really lovely and I'm sure a joy to splash around in during hot summers since they were only 6-8 inches full of gently flowing water. Another exceptional spot is a very little island that has a gazebo and a surprisingly big bridge connecting that island to the rest of the park. The park neighborhood must be very prestigious because the high bluffs around it are lined with some amazing houses.
Next, we visited
The Journey museum. It was a well curated and presented museum covering geologic and human history of the area. The layout was really cool starting with a dark room with a starscape. The layout naturally leads you from area to area in a logical order. They have a theater in the middle of the building and it runs about 5 different films each day. We watched a 30 minute film about the Lakota tribe's views on stars and phases of the moon. It was well produced (by the museum) and we were the only 2 people in the theater.
For lunch we stopped by the Uptown Mall just to look around. It's not a thriving mall unfortunately but the food court was good. We had Chinese. After some laundry and down time back at the hotel, dinner was back in Hill city at a biker bar. I had pizza and Brian had some wings.
So wraps up our 3 nights in the Black Hills which again impressed me to no end. One of my very favorite regions of the entire country.
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