Nothing prepared us for the beauty and excitement of this area of South Dakota. The Black Hills in northwestern South Dakota, so named by the Lakota Indians due to the darkness of the pine sloped mountains at a distance, covers 13,000 km2. The discovery of gold in 1874 changed this area forever and names such as George Armstrong Custer, Sitting Bull, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane were forever etched in history. The mining towns of Sturgis, Deadwood and Keystone were born and these towns are now tourist meccas particularly with Mt Rushmore at their doorstep.
We base ourselves initially in the northern part of the Black Hills at Spearfish where we ride through the beautiful canyon and stop for lunch at the lodge. A brief side trip to Belle Fourche, the designated geographical center of the USA since the addition of Hawaii in 1959.
Of course, we can’t forget Sturgis, famous for its annual motorcycle rally which draws hundreds of thousands of bikers from all over the world for a weekly festival of riding. What started in 1938 with a single race and nine participants has now grown to one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the world. Of course, we didn’t make the August rally however this weekend is a Mustang car rally so it still makes for an interesting stop.
Although many gold rush towns died almost as soon as they started, Deadwood was different and the gold kept coming with generations of miners coming to Deadwood saloons, brothels and gambling halls to unwind and relax. After more than a century of ‘illegal’ gambling, in 1989 Deadwood became the third place in the USA to allow legal gambling. Nowadays, there are gambling facilities and casinos on every corner. Enjoy the short clip of Deadwood.
La ‘pièce de resistance’ is of course Mt Rushmore, which took 14 years to build. Its amazing depiction of four presidents carved into granite, George Washington (1st president), Theodore Roosevelt (26th president), Thomas Jefferson (3rd president) and Abraham Lincoln (16th president) is quite a sight to behold. Theodore Roosevelt was the only presidential selection to draw criticism as some believed it too early to judge his presidency but the sculptor Borglum believed Roosevelts vision of America’s role in the world qualified him for the fourth place on the mountain.
We leave Mt Rushmore to ride through Highway 16A, the ‘Needles’ and the Iron Mountain highways. These are riding meccas with their sharp turns, very narrow tunnels, granite spires and great views.
The next day onto the Badlands, so named ‘mako sica’ or ‘land bad’ initially by the Lakota Indians, then by French Canadian trappers who called it ‘les mauvais terres pour traverser’ or ‘bad lands to travel through’. It is an amazing vista of rock formations, pinnacle and canyons. We take hwy 240 through the middle of the Badlands and marvel at the scenery. This is definitely an area not to be missed.
We carry on to Interstate 90; it seems that all the small towns dotted along this interstate need a drawcard to bring in some business. We reach the ‘famous’ town called Wall and we have to go and visit Wall Drug Store. The story goes that back in 1931, Dorothy and Ted Hustead bought the only drugstore in a little town called Wall on the edge of the South Dakota badlands. Five years later, business was bad and they were getting desperate, having seen a lot of cars driving through the town without stopping. So suddenly Dorothy came up with the idea of offering free ice water to all the cars driving from the hot dusty prairies and as they say, the rest is history and the next year they had to hire 8 staff to manage the number of cars stopping. Wall drug store still offers free ice water, 5 cent coffees and the block size emporium draws up to 20,000 people on a hot summer day.
Our next stop along the I-90 is Murdo where we spend a few hours admiring the quirky collection of ‘stuff’ at the Pioneer Auto show and then a quick stop in Mitchell to see the famous Corn Palace-a palace redecorated every year with naturally colored corn and other grains and grasses. Ear by ear the corn is nailed to the Corn Palace to create a scene, and the mural is stripped every August and new ones completed in October. Amazing!
So, we’ve come to the end of our time in South Dakota. We’ve loved it here, its been one of the highlights of our trip so far.
Kia Ora Kathy and Sinclair. Such beautiful landscapes cannot fail to impress!!!! Its great to see you are having a brilliant holiday and share it with us here at home, while working our butts off, lol.
Your choice to go through all those little historic towns proves that they can survive with the simplest of commodities, like iced water….just fabulous !!!
Sorry you missed the Bike Rally but the Mustang Rally looked pretty impressive.
Life goes on here, with wet weather still making its presence felt, but Spring is definitely here, so its gardening gloves on and seedlings planted for summer.
Keep us updated, love your Blogs. Safe journeys,
Liz and Rod XX
Hi U2! We feel blessed to be able to travel and see such amazing sights. We’ll see you in about 3 weeks. Us xx