Wandering Around America One State at a Time – South Dakota

Posted in National Parks, RVing, South Dakota, State Parks, Tourist Attractions, Wandering around America, WildlifeTagged , , , , , , ,

State 37:

Welcome to the next post in my series highlighting states we have visited throughout the years. I hope you will enjoy coming along for the ride!

I will be featuring the states alphabetically. The next state in my series is

South Dakota

South Dakota became the 40th state on November 2, 1889. The Capital is Pierre.

Our travels have taken us through South Dakota a surprising number of times. The Corn Palace in Mitchell and Wall Drug Store in Wall are two fun places to take a travel break along Interstate 90.

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota
Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota

Like so many other people, we made the Black Hills our primary travel destination in South Dakota. There is so much to see there we couldn’t do everything we wanted on our first trip so we returned five years later. In addition to the spectacular scenery, the highlights of our visits were Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Custer State Park, the wildlife, Deadwood, Wind Cave National Park and Badlands National Park.

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Mount Rushmore National Monument
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Crazy Horse Monument in 2006
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Crazy Horse Monument in the summer of 2011
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Five years after our first trip to the Black Hills, we camped at Game Lodge Campground in Custer State Park. We loved being close to so much wildlife.

Custer State Park is home to herds of Bison, also known as American Buffalo. Many can be seen from the scenic Wildlife Loop Road. Some also like to hang out in other parts of the park and we often saw them near the Game Lodge Campground. There were many calves when we were there in early June. As we drove through the park and on the drive through Wind Cave National Park we saw bison, pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs wild burros, and even white tail deer. This collage of the bison and other wildlife we saw in and around Custer State Park shows just a small sample of the wildlife that is there.

Bison on Wildlife Loop Drive
Huge bison herd on Wildlife Loop Drive
Bison in Custer State Park
Mama and Calf
Young bison
Take my picture!
Pronghorn Antelope
This buffalo was hanging out by the lodge
Friendly chipmunk at one of the overlooks on the Needles Highway
Pronghorn Antelope
Wild burro’s on the Wildlife Look Drive are not shy

Just driving through the Black Hills is an adventure and there are several scenic drives to enjoy. Iron Mountain Road and the Needles Highway are both narrow, steep, curvy roads with single lane tunnels. There were spectacular views from the Mount Coolidge Overlook at the end of another narrow road. Another day the views were spectacular as we drove through Spearfish Canyon but I forgot my camera that day!

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Along the Needles Highway in Custer Sate Park
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Eye of the Needle on the Needles Highway
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Needle Tunnel
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Mount Rushmore from one of the tunnels on Iron Mountain Road
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View of Crazy Horse Monument from the top of the Coolidge Overlook in Custer State Park

Deadwood is famous for being the town where Wild Bill Hickok was shot by Jack McCoy in the Number 10 Saloon in 1876. In the new Number 10 Saloon visitors can see a reenactment of the shooting of Wild Bill and there are reenactments in the street with gunslingers. We took the drive to his grave in the nearby Mount Moriah Cemetery.

Wild Bill Hickock was killed in Deadwood
Gunslingers in the streets of Deadwood
Reenactment of the shooting of Wild Bill Hickock (with the long hair and mustache playing cards)
At her request, Calamity Jane was buried next to Wild Bill Hickok at the Mt. Moria Cemetery in Deadwood
View of the town of Deadwood from the Mt. Moriah Cemetery

We discovered a couple of delightful campgrounds outside of the Black Hills during our South Dakota journeys. The owners are hard working and helpful at the Belvidere East KOA. Blondie enjoyed the dog park and we loved the Indian Tacos at their restaurant. The sunset was great, too.

Sunset at Belvidere East Campground
Sunset at Belvidere East Campground

Mina Lake State Recreation area near Aberdeen was a perfect place to chill after our time in the Black Hills. The park was practically empty and the camp hosts were friendly and helpful. They even brought us some pheasant appetizers one evening.

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Mina Lake State Recreation area near Aberdeen

To read previous posts about the states featured in this series just click on the state name: Alabama      Alaska      Arizona      Arkansas      California      Colorado     Florida      Georgia      Hawaii        Idaho  Illinois      Indiana      Iowa     Kansas     Kentucky     Louisiana     Maine     Maryland     Massachusetts     Michigan     Minnesota    Mississippi     Missouri     Montana     Nebraska     Nevada      New Hampshire     New Mexico      New York     North Carolina    North Dakota      Ohio     Oklahoma     Oregon     Pennsylvania    South Carolina

17 thoughts on “Wandering Around America One State at a Time – South Dakota”

  1. Looks really nice! Love all the wildlife. One of my favorite movies is Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest”. The finale takes place with the characters climbing on Mount Rushmore.

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  2. Seeing this post instills in us the desire to return to that beautiful state and explore it with more detail. We traversed many of the roads you did and it was nice seeing it through your lens. Thank you for bringing us along with you. Unfortunately when we arrived at Mt. Rushmore we didn’t know dogs were not allowed. The hostess never commented on Emma’s attempts to show off that we couldn’t bring her. We knew we would be several hours there and didn’t want our Emma girl to sit in our motor home so they were gracious enough to return our money and let us look around. Oh well I guess we just had to settle for the 1000 other beautiful places that state offered.

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    1. At least you had plenty of opportunities to see Mount Rushmore from those scenic roads. I remember on some of the roads it seemed like we would have a view of it every time we went around a curve. I’m sure Emma was happy to be able to enjoy the ride with you!

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      1. Yes it seemed as if every mountain we climbed there was a view that took our breath away. While we were at Crazy Horse we met one of the featured flutist and he gave us permission to use one of his musical pieces as the background to one of our videos. So glad hearing from you and yes Emma sure does enjoy the travels. Makes us wonder if the dogs from SD smell different, lol.

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  4. This state is on our bucket list, for sure. We had actually hoped to ride our motorcycle there back in the day. Now we will have to settle on driving our motor home there one day! Nice post! Thanks!

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    1. I would have enjoyed spending more time in the Badlands. I like the prairies, too. We really enjoyed Mina Lake. It was on our way to where we were headed but kind of out of the way for I-90 travelers.

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  8. Thanks for highlighting a few more things to see when I get up to the Mt. Rushmore area. There’s definitely more to see up there than many people realize.

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