Custer South Dakota

Also jewel cave, minuteman missle silo. Skip crazy horse.
Eat at black hills bun and burger company in Custer. The hot granny is my go to there and the fried cheese curds are good too.

ETA: the state game lodge in the park has a decent restaurant. I enjoyed the bison chili there.

quote:

---

The Badlands National Park, Wall Drug Store, Wind Cave, Sturgis, Custer State Park, Needles Highway, Wildlife Loop for buffalo views, Downtown Deadwood and many other beautiful drives like Spearfish Canyon and a trip to Devils Tower.

---

Yep, do these. Stop by the CSP visitor center and talk to the ranger and watch the short video.

Take Iron Mountain Rd south to north and you can see Mount Rushmore framed by at least one and maybe two tunnels. Go to Mt Rushmore at dusk for the closing ceremony.

If you go to Devils Tower take WY Hwy 24 and stop at the Oldest General Store in WY in Aladdin. Get some of their spicy pretzels.

If you like planes and military things go to the Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth AFB.

If you like old trains the Black Hills Central Railroad, also called the 1880 Train I think, goes from Hill City to Keystone. It's on the National Register of Historic Places.

You can see the Trial of Jack McCall, he killed Wild Bill, in Deadwood. And there is a reenactment of the shooting in one of the two Saloon #10s.

Drive up to Mt. Coolidge Lookout. It's off of Hwy 87 on the west side of CSP. You can see Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore and an old forest fire look out house on a mountain side from there; with help.

Take the mile drive off of Spearfish Canyon drive to Roughlock Falls.

Crazy Horse should be on the bottom of your to do list. The video was interesting and we caught about a 30 minute show by an Indian Chief (he called himself an Indian) that was good but overall it's not worth the time/cost, IMO.

I spent four days there last year. The wildlife drive was worth the time. If you have to choose it and going to see the Needles, choose it, but the Needles were cool too.

There is a FANTASTIC barbecue joint just west of Rapid City on I-90 named JRs Rhodehouse. It's about an hour-long drive, but it's worth it if you like barbecue.

LINK

Sylvan Lake is wonderful. Post card worthy views.