Flew out 7PM ET from Rochester NY on 6/1 and arrived in Rapid City 10:30PM MT via Minneapolis. Uneventful flight.
I had rented the car to pick up at the airport but the website said I needed to pick up by 10PM so we were to get a hotel shuttle and overnight at Best Western Town & Country, get a shuttle back Sat AM to rent the car and be on our way. Much to my surprise there was a body at the Enterprise counter and she indicated that someone was always there until the last flight arrival, excellent. Upgrade for $5/day form a Yaris to Altima, wise decision!
Overnight at the BW went well other than the obligatory loud people next door. Up at 7 for the included breakfast and off 2 hours ahead of schedule on 6/2 to Little Bighorn.
Our route was the most direct, RT 90 W, and the travel time should be about 5 hours. Since we were ahead of schedule we made a stop at the Vore Buffalo Jump . They had just opened for the season a day earlier and the lady who met us was full of knowledge and energy, we got the VIP tour since we were the only ones there. 45 min to an hour later we were on the road again still ahead of schedule.
Stop at the first of 3 Buffalo WY exits for gas and drinks. Great Exxon-Mobile right off interstate with clean rest rooms and nice selection of snacks, etc. Motor on to Sheridan WY with beautiful view of the Big Horn Mountains. Stop for lunch at what looked like a decent place in the historical main street area and had an average meal.
Finally arrive at Little Bighorn around 2:30 and immediately sign up for the Native American guided bus tour after getting passport stamp and park sticker. Tour gets started promptly at 3 and lasted about 45 – hour, very informative and would suggest doing this prior to heading out on your own.
After the tour we decided to go to the Super 8 in Harding for the night, checked in and went for dinner at the Ft Custer Golf club. Had the BBQ platter, it was good and service was great, reasonably priced.
6/3 up early for the included breakfast and off to LBH for the 8AM opening. Perfect timing since we were one of only 3 vehicles there and immediately did the driving loop to visit each placard/area in order 1-17. I could envision the entire ballet unfolding before my eyes, my wife not so much.
After about an hour or so we were on our way to Devils Tower retracing the same RT 90 back with a gas stop in Buffalo WY again then 4 ½ hours total drive to Devils Tower. Arrived Devils Tower around 2PM and pass the rotund Prairie Dogs just inside the park entrance. Passport stamp/sticker and off for the 1.2 (?) mile hike around the base of the Tower. Pretty amazing stuff here and then it finally hit me, after months of planning etc my brain said “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, Do not know why it took me so long to figure this one out.
After about an hour and a half we drove down to the KOA restaurant/grocery/gift shop just outside the park entrance for an unexciting lunch but some great Devils Tower fudge. Off to Hulett Best Western for the evening. Walked a block over, of course I think there is only 1 block, to the Ponderosa for a great meal, service, ambiance! With doggie bags in hand we walked down to the Rogue Gallery which was open even though it was 7PM on a Sunday. The owner greeted us and showed us around. What peeked our interest was a rodeo poster in the Ponderosa, turns out the owner of the Rogue Gallery is the poster artist. After looking around we left with a rodeo poster rolled up in hand wondering how we were going to get it back home without destroying it. And that is when my wife suggested mailing it, brilliant!
6/4 motored on out of Hulett, after the included breakfast of course, and headed for the Devils Tower post office, mailed our poster and off to what was the most ambitious portion of our trip to Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, Custer State Park, Mt. Rushmore. Took RT 16 out of WY to Jewel Cave, pretty uneventful route, until you hit the Black Hills then it gets interesting. Very winding and curvy road and scenic.
Get to Jewel Cave to find out that a lightening hit knocked out their elevator to the cave and thus no tours. No problem, not so sure we are really cave people and had not really made a reservation in advance so after a brief stop, stamp, sticker we are on our way to Wind Cave. Finally see our first wildlife, other than the rotund prairie dogs mentioned prior, in the form of Antelope and Bison right at the entrance to Wind Cave. Get down to the Visitor Center, stamp/sticker and find that all the “tours” are booked until later. We are on our way to Custer State Park and the wildlife loop which lives up to its name. Many bison, antelope, mules, etc.
Work our way around the loop and stop for lunch at the State Game Lodge, very cool place and reasonable lunch buffet at $13/pp. Motor on down the iron Mountain Road thru the tunnels and a spectacular view of Mt. Rushmore and get dumped out in Keystone after another winding, twisting road with 1 lane tunnels and bridges on curves.
We are off to check in at K Bar S. After a brief break we decide to head up to Mt. Rushmore around 6:15 for the lighting ceremony. Tactical error on my part, the ceremony is at 9 and not 8 thus we have a bit of a wait. We have an unmemorable meal at the onsite café and set up shop, after stamp/sticker at the amphitheatre. I was concerned with crowds but being it was the week after a major holiday and school was not out yet we lucked out with only about 1000 – 1500 people there. The lighting went on without a hitch and around 10pm we went back to K Bar S for the night.
6/5 Up and , you guessed it, off for the included breakfast then motor on out for Crazy Horse. Got there around 9-9:30 well before the crowds, saw the 25 min film, well worth it, and opted for the $4/pp bus ride for a closer view. This was well worth the $4, very knowledgeable drive and very cool up closer view. Spent o bit of time in the museum area for the obligatory pictures and off again via Needles highway (rt87) to 16A to RT 36 to RT79 and off to Badlands via RT 44.
Needles highway was another great winding, switchback route with 1 way tunnels and spectacular views. The benefit of running ahead of schedule was that we were able to fit in much more of Custer State park than anticipated in the planning stages of this trip. Since we were staying at Cedar Pass Lodge cabins in Interior it looked on paper to be the most direct route doing RT 44, it would appear to be the more scenic as opposed to RT 90. Word to the wise, gas up, gear up and plan ahead since there are not services at all on this road. It is wide open prairie but a nice drive due to lack of traffic. You can still cruise along, 80mph in my instance. Once you get into the park the scenery changes rapidly from prairie to moonscape. Upon entry into the Cedar pass area it was already 90 degrees plus and a wind of 40-50 MPH, a real blast furnace.
Over to the Visitor Center, yup you got it (stamp/sticker) and since we have a ½ hour to 45 min until check in at the lodge we do a dry run up to the Minuteman Missile visitor center to gage how long we need for the drive since we have reservation for a Ranger tour of the launch facility the next day.
Got it down to a 10 min drive so head back, after a few overlook/picture stops check in and WOW. I reserved these on line and was offered the availability of new cabins for 2012, they are brand spanking new and fabulous! The best accommodations and price the whole trip. Should you travel to the Badlands you need to stay on site in Cedar Pass Lodge, beats anything being offered in Wall hands down!
Decided to head up to Wall for dinner and take in most of the scenic overlooks on the 240 park loop on way up. This is roughly 90 min from Cedar Pass to Wall while taking in most of the sights and pictures. Once in Wall ate another average meal and headed back. We finally saw a mountain goat and off spring just south of the Sage Creek turn off and past the yellow ……… overlook, very cool. Turned in for the night.
6/6 Up early to knock off the Window/Door and Cliff Shelf hikes then off to breakfast at the Cedar Pass lodge. Decent size meal, good price and great service. Re-tooled at the cabin, checked out and head up for our Minuteman Missile reserved Ranger Tour, exit 131 on RT90. Picked up the tickets at the info center and drove to the next exit west to the launch facility for the actual guided tour. After about an hour ½ exited the facility and headed up to Exit 116 to view the actual missile silo. After our cold War fix we proceeded to Wall to catch 240 S back into Badland NP and drive the Sage Creek Rim Road, saw some great overlooks, prairie dogs, bison, etc. Did not go all the way to Sage Creek but instead head back up to Wall via RT502 to Sage Creek Road to RT240 to Wall. Did the obligatory tour of Wall Drug….not impressed and spent the night at Best Western.
6/7 drove back to Rapid City for out noon flight. Turned in rental car at airport with 880 plus miles driven. It was a hot and very windy vacation but we did not hit any terrible weather either on the ground or in the air. I can honestly say that we accomplished more than we set out to and actually had quite a bit of unscheduled free time that we put to good use in Custer State Park for the most part.
Last edited by Administrator; 09/05/2012 02:49 PM.
