TL;DR - South Dakota all day. Deadwood in the daytime, then drive through the Black Hills out to Badlands National Park in late afternoon and sunset, spend the night in Keystone, near Mt Rushmore.
Theme songs:
- "Rocky Raccoon" (The Beatles)
- "Badlands" (Bruce Springsteen)
I printed out a bunch of maps ahead of time for this region, all from the excellent Black Hills/Badlands page. They look great when printed out on 11x17 paper, and it's a good reference when you want to see the big picture, not just where you are and your route on a smartphone.
I was a big fan of the HBO series "Deadwood", and it was neat coming out here to see where it all really happened. Well, more or less, as the tv series had been filmed on a back lot and all of the original buildings in Deadwood the town are long gone, mostly lost to a fire. But the names are all familiar - Jack McCall, who shot Wild Bill Hickock, Charlie Utter, Seth Bullock, Calamity Jane, Merrick, Cochran, Dan Dority, Mr Woo, Joanie Stubbs. I'm sure some of the popularity of the town and its landmarks are a reflection of the TV show, but it's still a small mountain town with a lot of history. Took a stroll down Main Street, stopped at The Gem for lunch and a beer. Lots of motorcycles parked on Main, they converted car parking to bike parking in advance of the 75th annual Sturgis rally this weekend.
Checked out the Adams Museum, then drove up to Mount Moriah Cemetery, the burial place of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane, right next to each other.
I decided to take the scenic route out to the Badlands through the Black Hills. Exit south out of Deadwood on US 85, then take US 385 for 36 miles, stopping at the amazingly picturesque Pictola Reservoir along the way.
Then take US 16 northeast until it hits 90E on the east side of Rapid City. I could have saved a lot of time and cut across the Black Hills on SR 44 straight into Rapid City, but I was there to see the mountains. Made a quick detour on the way to the Badlands to stop off at the world-famous Wall Drug Store, which is famous for a reason that I have no idea why (but I was able to get some generic Sudafed for my allergies, which were really acting up in this part of the trip).
And so it wasn't until 5:30pm that I finally got to the Badlands. I had no idea what I was in for, I was just told that if I was in the area I had to go. Glad I did, this was one of the most amazing natural formations I've seen since the Grand Canyon.
Directions: Take Exit 110 off of I-90, go down SR 240 towards park which turns into Badlands Loop Rd through the North Unit of the park and make a clockwise loop, which will take about 3 hours if you stop and take pictures. The visitor’s center is at the southeast corner of park. A modest $15 fee gets you entry into the park. From the visitor's center, leave the park and I took 377 to 44 west, then make a right on Conata Basin Road and go due north through the Buffalo Gap National Grassland to get back to the Badlands.
Pinnacles Overlook
Ancient Hunters Overlook
Yellow Mounds Overlook
Bighorn sheep at Conata Basin Overlook
Burns River Overlook
Panorama Point Overlook
White River Valley Overlook
Fossil exhibit area
Cedar Pass drive
Sunset wasn't until about 8:30pm, so I had plenty of time to drive around and see the sights (including a drive through Buffalo Gap National Grassland. The formations become even more colorful with the setting sun, and then I spent over 20 minutes watching the full moon rise at the Pinnacles Overlooks and taking time exposure pictures.
Backtracked my way on 90W to US 16 into Keystone, my stop for the night. I stayed at the Brookside Motel there, just a couple miles away from Mt Rushmore. It was clean and inexpensive, just what I'm looking for in a roadside place in the middle of nowhere. There weren't a lot of places open for dinner late at night there, but I found a pizza place called Pie for the People. It was open, that was my criteria for eating there. I had originally decided to stay in Keystone because it was so close to Mt Rushmore, and I wanted to see the nightly sunset light show just down the road, but I checked into the motel and brought my stuff in and then completely forgot about it until the next morning when I was checking out. Oh well, something to save for next time.
My original original plan was to do Deadwood then Badlands today, ending up at Mt Rushmore for sunset. Then I would have either stayed the night in Keystone, or kept my bags in the car and started the drive south towards Denver in the dark until I decided it was time to stop. My flight is 9:15pm out of Denver, and it's 400 miles/6.5 hours to get there from SD, so if I leave by noon I'll have plenty of time. Then one of my crowdsource planners told me "It will be much safer to drive to Denver in the day. The drive from SD to Denver is a lonely one with not a lot of services. I would not want to do any part of it late at night. Very dark, very few services, and you could easily meet up with a large 4 legged critter standing in the middle of the road." With no hurry, I decided to see Mt Rushmore first thing in the morning, then drive south so I could appreciate it all in the daylight.
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