re: Black Hills South Dakota in October

We just made this trip from Shreveport. After studying maps and talking to my neighbors who have been to Sturgis over a dozen times and driven every route, we drove to Salina KS first day (9 hrs 40 mins). Martinelli’s Little Italy downtown was a good dinner.

Day two we drove up to York NE and hit I-80 to Ogallala, then turned on Hwy 26, then 385 to Rapid City. 10.5 hours of drive time. This kept us in fairly well traveled areas with plenty of gas stations. You can cut up the middle of NE through some Indian reservations, but if you break down, you may be screwed. My neighbor says you better top off every time you can in that part of the world because gas stations may be scarce.

Rented a VRBO walking distance to downtown RC. So glad we did that instead of either of the big hotels downtown. We had a full kitchen, grill, washer and dryer, nice deck, etc. There are cheaper hotels outside of downtown, but we like to hit downtown spots and drink, so those were inconvenient.

We daytripped every day to Mt Rushmore (exceeded my expectations based on others dissing it; we thought it was great, and best viewed through the 4 tunnels along Iron Mountain Road in Custer State Park), Crazy Horse, Custer State Park (do not miss; can easily spend all day there; stop at the wildlife center, which pointed us down a gravel road to a huge herd of Buffalo that many folks who stayed on the main road missed), Badlands National Park (Wall Drugs is near; just a huge T-shirt and magnet store but you have to go so you can say it sucked; Minuteman Missile Center is near too and worth a 30 minute stop), Devils Tower (well worth the trip, hike the mile trail around it, and eat at the Diamond Bar and Grill near the entrance). We hit Spearfish Canyon and Deadwood on the way back from DT. Deadwood stop was just for a beer at the No. 10 Saloon where Wild Bill went down and a visit to Mount Moriah cemetery. That cemetery is steeeeep. You may want to do the guided bus tour of it.

We found lots of good food and drink in RC. We also got to know their car washes well. We got hella bug splatter daily, plus mud when we drove the long dirt road out the back of Badlands to Hwy 44 and experienced a rare rain. But, hey, double rainbow!