Lots of Places Today!!

We really went on a road trip in South Dakota today. We visited Hill City, Lead, Deadwood, Sturgis, Spearfish and also drove down the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway on our way back to the campground. Charley took the long steep walk uphill to the Moriah Cemetery and saw the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane in Deadwood. The main streets of each of these towns was very western and very well maintained. Our only regret is that our timing didn’t include any of the festivals, rodeos and things like that but we will try to take care of that the next time we come here, and we probably will.

For those interested in the Broken Arrow Horse Camp and Campground, this is a very nice, quiet campground that is off the beaten path (about 4 miles outside of Custer). It is small but very nice, especially if you like horses!! And I do…. There must have been about 25-30 horses here when we checked in. We would recommend this campground to anyone traveling in this area.

Tomorrow is going to be a quiet day for us. Charley is going to the Ellsworth AFB Commissary tomorrow to pick up a few things and also will be making a Walmart run. Outside of that we are planning to rest and relax the rest of the day while our roast cooks in the crock-pot.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Wild Bill Hickok’s grave in Deadwood

Main Street in Deadwood

Where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed

Main Street in Hill City

Gold Mine in Lead

Main Street in Lead

Main Street in Spearfish

Main Street and hillside in Sturgis

All of the pictures below are from the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway

Hot Springs, SD

We took a scenic drive to Hot Springs today. Although it was not as gorgeous as Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore it was a very pretty drive. And we saw more wildlife today!! More pronghorns and buffalo and a new one, prairie dogs!! They are so cute!

We are planning to go out to dinner at a local restaurant tonight and going to the campground ice cream social for a little while. Have to get back to Skype with the grandkids tonight!!  Haven’t talked to them for three days and we are having withdrawal symptoms!!

Hope you like the pictures!!

This waterfall is in downtown Hot Springs

A lot of the storefronts are covered in sandstone.

Some beautiful clouds today!!

Animal sightings!!

   

Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore

Sorry that I am late with our update from yesterday!!

Wow, what a day!! We saw so much beautiful scenery that it is going to be hard to describe and do it justice.

First we started our road trip through Custer State Park and what a gorgeous place. We saw trees, hills, mountain streams, and wildlife. Some of our pictures will help describe it better. We got pictures of wild turkey, pronghorn, bison/buffalo and burros. And we went wild taking pictures of the scenery.

As we were taking the scenic drive through Custer State Park, we took a side trip to Mount Rushmore. Again, beautiful scenery!! And such a great tribute to some of our past presidents.
Then, back into the state park and the Needles Highway. And, words definitely cannot describe how awesome this drive was. It is named the Needles Highway for a reason, there is a rock formation that looks like the eye of a needle. We also saw a mountain climber actually tackling one of the formations.

So, enjoy the pictures (these are only a few of many)  and let us know what you think. We are going to check out Hot Springs and the scenic drive to and from there today.

Custer State Park

The Wildlife

Mount Rushmore

Needles Highway

Custer, South Dakota

We left Wall, SD at around 9:30 this morning and arrived at the Broken Arrow Campground in Custer, SD at around noon. This was a very short travel day for us!!

The campground is small but very nice and located in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is an RV camp and horse camp. There are about 30 horses here right now. I am in my element!! I love horses!!

We plan to get started on our sight-seeing adventures tomorrow and will be posting pictures of what we see.

Wall Drug and the Badlands National Park in Wall, South Dakota

We started our day today with breakfast! Scrambled eggs and toast. Had to fuel ourselves up because we were heading out for a rather long drive through the badlands. Also made sandwiches for lunch and packed a cooler.

We first went to visit Wall Drug and walked through all the various stores that are a part of it. Fascinating place. They do it all there, sell almost anything and feed you so you will stay a long time!! :-) Charley and I bought a Badlands tee-shirt as our souvenir of this visit and Charley got himself a Badlands back scratcher also. I am sure I will probably use that too from time to time. Pictures attached.

We then, with Cheyenne, headed out on our drive through the badlands. I drove today and gave Charley a break. He takes better pictures than I do anyway so this made sense. This scenery is absolutely awesome. It is incredible what nature can do if we humans just leave it alone!! With our binoculars we were able to see buffalo in the grassy valleys of the badlands, just little black specks to the naked eye. We could also see some farms and cattle scattered within these valleys. I have to say I admire our farmers in this country, especially farmers like these who are so far away from everything!!

We stopped at several of the scenic overlooks in the park and had lunch at our last stop before heading back to the campground.

It is really hard to describe the badlands with words so we will let the pictures tell this story. Attaching several that we hope you will enjoy.

We will be leaving Wall tomorrow morning, heading for Custer, SD and the Broken Arrow campground. We are less than 100 miles from there so this will be a short drive. We will be there for at least one week to see all the many sights in that area.

Wall Drug

The Badlands – words are not necessary

Wall, South Dakota

First, I have to update you on our dinner last night at Chef Louie’s. It was wonderful and we highly recommend it! Charley had a NY Strip and I had a Filet Mignon and they were both delicious!! If/when we are ever back this way we will definitely stop in again.

We have arrived in Wall, South Dakota and have gotten all set up for a two night stay. We left at 9:30 this morning and arrived at 1:30 this afternoon. Not a bad trip at all.

Charley and Cheyenne have already walked down to take a look at the exterior of Wall Drug to see if it still looked that same as last time.  We are planning to check out the interior tomorrow and then head into the Badlands for a road trip to see this sight!! Just planning to stay in, cook dinner and relax tonight, with an occasional walk for Cheyenne of course.

Below are some pictures from our trip here today.

We crossed the Missouri River again.

Fields of sunflowers to go with the corn and soybeans!!

One of our first looks at the Badlands today.

We hope to have some great pictures of the Badlands tomorrow and maybe Wall Drug too!!

Maintenance Day in Mitchell, SD

We have been working on some cleanup and minor repairs today. Planning to rest this afternoon and go out to what appears to be a great steak place for dinner tonight, Chef Louie's Steakhouse and Lounge. This place got rave reviews from the public and we cannot wait to see if we agree.

We will be leaving in the morning for Wall, SD and will be staying two nights there. Plan to go to Wall Drugs and tour the Badlands before moving on to western South Dakota for a stay of a week or more.