Mt. Rushmore & the Black Hills Trip

A trip from October 07, 2006 to October 15, 2006, travelling to Denver, Hot Springs, Custer, Keystone …
A scenic tour of the Black Hills, the Badlands, and the … More  
A scenic tour of the Black Hills, the Badlands, and the Pine Ridge Reservation with Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Devils Tower thrown in for fun.
Trip Tags:3-star, Adventure, ArchitectureMore  

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A Short Drive through Nebraska

We live in Atlanta so we flew into Denver and rented a car for a couple of reasons:  Imagefirst there are no big airports around the Black Hills, including Rapid City, so you have to go to a large city airport anyway and then change planes to continue on to a nearby city and that's just not for us.  ImageBut the bigger reason is that we go on these trips to see the USA, the lay of the land, the country and countryside and the landscape.  For us, that's part of the fun and we just love seeing our beautiful country and enjoy what it has to offer.     So we hit the road (we have already done a Denver & Rocky Mountain trip before) and headed to South Dakota by way of Nebraska--on purpose--because we have never been in the state of Nebraska and wanted to see it, as noted above. Image

Image It was a lot diffenert than I expected, based on what I had heard and was pleasantly surprised at the scenery.  One thing that we noticed was that there were a ton of trains all along the route,......and ....not......much........else! 

Image

We passed this sign, 'Lost Springs-population one', and that about sums it up.  But I did hit the brakes, back up and take the picture because it was too good to pass up. Image

 

 

Then we followed a rainbow into South Dakota at dusk Imageand arrived in Hot Springs to spend the night and see what it had to offer, with hopes of relaxing in a real hot spring under the evening sky.  After checking into the hotel we had dinner at a nice restaurant called Scotty's across the street and got directions to a little park with what was supposed to be a hot spring.  It may have been fed by a hot spring somewhere upstream, but the water was ice cold where we were and we couldn't go in.  We wanted to be outdoors in the cool night air, but it looks like Evan's Plunge is the only game in town--and it's indoors.  We had fun anyway, and turned in for the night.


 
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Talk about this trip (10)
I thought your pictures where GREAT!!! South Dakota is a pretty state, but I have to say that WY is one of my favorites places to visit. I love the Dud ranches there as well. Thanks 4 the memories
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More then Great AWSOME!! I also was able to send to a friend that wants to ride his motorcycle around all these places... (follow the Oregon Trail) as he would say... well you gave me some good places for him to stop and see. thank you.
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Black Hills Blogger (View Black Hills Blogger's trips)
Excellent pictures. The Saloon #10 is one of my favorite places in Deadwood, and it looks like you had a really beautiful room there, too. I liked the Lost Springs picture. Heh heh... I've driven between the Black Hills and Denver plenty of times. I definitely prefer to fly if I can. The Rapid City airport has six direct flights now, which means even international travelers can get there in just two hops.
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Thanks for all your info!! Loved the pictures, too. We are going this week, so this was perfect timing for us!!
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HT, glad I could help! This was my wife's favorite trip and we had a great time. It was very relaxing and tons of fun and really interesting. Let me know if you have any last minute questions I can help you with! Have a great time!!
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Hi Paris Traveler - I loved your trip and thanks for sharing! I like how you and your wife explored and chronicled so many places. I lived in Rapid City for 12 years and it is interesting that the reservations are still so sad, I still carry the mental images of how terrible some people have it.
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Indeed. It just broke my heart. But that aside, it was a wonderful trip and I also came away with a fantastic CD by Brulé, "We the People", and I play it often. It the best American Indian theme music I have heard and it is truely a joy to listen to, especially after you learn about how it came about. Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you enjoyed reading about our trip. Many blessings to you.
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What a wonderful read. This brought back great memories of our trips through South Dakota. I was back at those places you described and am anxious to make the trip again with my two youngest who are now teens. This will be so exciting for them. Thank you so very much for sharing.
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Our family will be going to these places in South Dakota plus more on the East side in Sioux Falls,De Smet(Ingall's Homestead) and Garretson (Jesse James and the Devil's Gulch). We are really looking forward to this trip, but after seeing your pictures of South Dakota, I'm even more excited about the whole thing.We will only be in South Dakota for 10 days, but are mainly going to think about a possible relocation to the state, a few years from now. The kids are still relatively young, so we would like to take this trip before they can say no LOL ! Thanks for all of the wonderful pictures and enjoy your Alaskan Cruise. My grandmother never stopped talking about the Alaskan cruise she took till the day she passed :)
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Hi Mr or Madaim
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Planned Activities

Sat 10/07/06 (day 1) - Denver, Hot Springs

City
Thing to Do

Sun 10/08/06 (day 2) - Hot Springs, Custer

Thing to Do
City

Mon 10/09/06 (day 3) - Keystone, Custer

Thing to Do

Tue 10/10/06 (day 4) - Rapid City, Pine Ridge, Interior, Wall, Deadwood

Shopping
Restaurant

Wed 10/11/06 (day 5) - Spearfish, Devil's Tower

Thing to Do
 
 
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