South Dakota

June 17-18, 2024: Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore, and The Badlands 

This blog is the sixth of a 7-part series describing our 8-week, 7,368 mile epic journey through the middle of the United States, in which we visited 10 national parks and many other state parks. 

June 18: We packed up, dumped the tanks, and headed to Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore, about a four hour drive. The drive turned out to be beautiful, driving through the Black Hills National Forest. Along the way, serendipitously, we stopped at some beautiful falls and at Jewel Caves National Monument which we found along the way. Unfortunately the timing didn’t work out to visit the caves so we headed to Crazy Horse which was busy but not packed. The museum showed mostly the strong culture of indigenous peoples and the history of the yet-to-be-completed memorial. We opted out of the bus ride that takes you closer to the memorial and headed to Mount Rushmore which was not at all crowded and very fun to see. We walked the short Presidential Trail and then headed out. We drove through Keystone which was very touristy. Custer was much more interesting looking. We decided not to go to Custer State Park because we had seen enough bison and didn’t have enough time to do any hiking. 

Having decided to only spend only one night in the Badlands National Park, we booked a Harvest Host at Sick-n-Twisted Brewery nearby so we could get an early start the next morning. The brewery was a bit odd, busy at 6:30 PM, but there was a nice walk from there which we took and saw a bunch of deer. And we had some pretzels and beer which were okay but not great. 

June 19: We left the brewery and headed to the Badlands, about a 90 minute drive to the entrance. On the way, we stopped at Wall Drug for 5 cent coffee and free ice water, stopped at the Grassland Visitor Center which was a waste of time, and then headed down into the park. At the entrance, we saw a few bison and pronghorn. We drove the scenic Loop Drive, stopping at most of the overlooks, getting out, and walking around. Then we hiked the Saddle Pass trail to Medicine Route to Castle Trail and back, an almost five mile hike as we veered off the trail a few times by mistake. Thank goodness for All Trails to help us find our way! Then we walked the Door and Window trails and headed to the Cedar Pass Campground situated in the park. We took very cold, coin operated showers (not fun) and hung out in the van. The sunset was beautiful as was the setting, but it was too cloudy to see the stars, and it started pouring in the middle of the night.