Going to Mt. Rushmore-- WE'RE BACK! Day 5 is up!! page 10 Final Day!

[disneybound31]

Can't wait to hear more! You are bringing back good memories - we went in 2006 and it is a very special trip.

Thanks for reading along! I will work on day 2 when the kids go to bed.

 

[disneybound31]

After a decent nights rest with me TRYING not to worry that the kids would crash out of the loft they shared with their aunt (my younger sis) we woke early and continued on with the trip itinerary I had planned out for all of us.

*Background*- I am the planner of the family. I overheard my mom say on several occasions that she would so love to see Mt. Rushmore some day and knowing my family's love of travel but also their difficulty getting ideas off the ground I stepped forward and announced we would all go to celebrate my mother's 60th birthday. She quickly decided that if we were going she definatly could not wait more than a year and just as quickly decided she really wanted no part of anything that had 'turning 60' attached to it. So I began my planning as if it were Disney- and you know, it turned out pretty well.

So were up and the guys walk down the hill for the first of several massive and delicious breakfasts at the lodge restaurant. Their instructions were to enjoy their leisurely breakfast while the girls got showered and dressed and to bring us a breakfast feast back. We still had that menu in the cabin and boy, did those people make a pile of $ from us! Their food was so yummy we repeated this pattern three more times!

A quick run-down of the great foods we had for breakfast during our stay and then I will simply be able to say bfast at Powderhouse and you can be assured that we ate well. French toast, huge hotcakes, the very best biscuits and gravy ever, hashbrowns, veggie omelet, bacon, bacon-egg-ham-cheese bfast sandwich, hot chocolate (for DD7) every morning, more biscuits but with butter and jelly There's prob more, but my computer has too much drool on it.

We left our cabin and headed for the National Presidential Wax Museum which was recommended to me by another poster on this thread and we had easily located the day before. Let me tell you very honestly that the previous poster was correct, that this is a moving, fascinating and educational experience albeit very expensive. Quick mention: if you can find one of those free coupon/info booklets in most any foyer of any attraction then search it... we found later in our day a 1/2 off each admission coupon. THis annoyed me as it cost $36 for 2 adults/2 children to get in. I enjoyed this attraction and we spent about 2 hours there. But it is just too much for young kids IMO. And our kids are pretty into this kind of stuff. So if your kids are 10 or under I would forego this.

Afterward if was lunchtime, but none of us could decide what to do since my DD7 wanted to do the ski-lift across the street and get lunch at the diner at the top, but DS10 only had eyes for the Holy Terror putt-putt right next door. He was in quite a pre-teen funk after that wax museum and usually I can reel him back in easily, but he was having no part of any activity that did not involve that putt-putt. So we went. After eating lunch in a horrible diner up the street a bit. I do not have the name. But DO NOT eat in the dirty looking diner up from the Dairy Queen. Expensive and the drinks tasted like dirt. Very expensive and so much about our order was wrong and a hassle to fix.

Quick review of the putt-putt: This course is hard. And we are pro putt-putters. It is almost a family hobby so you can understand DS not wanting to pass it by. The guy in the window where you pay and get your ball/club was super rude. Would NOT let my son have the putter he KNEW was the right length for him... eventually my dad had to intervene for me as this guy was nuts. Tried to make me feel both stupid and like a criminal for requesting something other than what he gave us. So we got off on the wrong foot... the course is a 4 out of 10 for asthetics and a 9 out of 10 for difficulty. I wished we had gone elsewhere.

We pack up in the car for the hour long drive from Keystone to the Badlands Natl. Park. This I was most excited about. But our impulsive golf activity had put us a couple hours behind and then it happened. The mistake. I took us to the wrong exit. Listen to me closely if you are going to do the Badlands. Take exit 110 NOT exit 109. Please believe me on this one. I'll tell you why..

After the 40 minute (DH drove a bit fast) Dsis had to potty. I had not planned to stop at Wall Drug at exit 109. But we did. And it was fun. We wandered around a bit and yes, it is a huge drug store. Very cute, lots to see. Took pics on the jackalope- T-REX was cool. All in all, I am glad we stopped, BUT... then we just got on the 240 loop through the Badlands without going back out to the interstate. BIG MISTAKE. The plan had been to hit exit 110 which is where the loop starts closest to the must-do visitor center. It is a loop so I guess I figured what can it hurt to start where we ended up by Wall Drug. It hurt us badly. Because I wanted us to be in a great position to see the sunset, but we ended up totally opposite, if you can follow for a minute. This is what you SHOULD do: hit exit 110- start driving the loop and encounter visitor center within 10 minutes- stop off to get must do trail/hike locations and watch cool film- get back on road and arrive at first mini-trail/hike Fossil trail (very cool for kids)- then continue the hour long (shorter if you never get out... but get out at the scenic overlooks..AWESOME pics will be your reward) -eventually you will be driving toward the setting sun and what I imagine is a breathtaking experience....BUT WE DID IT BACKWARDS! We were driving AWAY from that sunset. and by the time we got to the cool mini-hike it was getting almost too dark to see the cool stuff. And the big kicker was that by the time we reached the visitor center it was pitch black (9:00 ish) and closed! And, oh yeah, we had not had dinner (it was 11:00 ish to us) and the Cedar Pass (?) restaurant was closing down so no food for us.

Kids were cranky, DH had ticked me off with a comment of two, Dsis was being snippy and we were just plain tired. So we drove back to Wall Drug where we thought their huge dining room would be open til 10. Nope. Closed at 10 and we got there @ 9:30 and they were cleaning up. We found a strange mom and pop restaurant that was nice enough to stay over to feed us, but we honestly should have kept going because it was horrible. The Elk something or other. We had no choice tho because there is NOTHING between Badlands and our cabin. Oh well. Now you can learn from our mistakes. Had we done that loop the right way we could have enjoyed dinner at Cedar Pass (think it's the name?) and then enjoyed the beauty of the Badlands. All that to say that regardless we ADORED the Badlands and we should have gone back. But we didn't. Oh, and also, DS10 had a terrible stomach upset and luckily we found the park has bathroom scattered throughout the drive. We stopped at every one. Poor guy.

Up next, Day 3... it's a doozy. Jam packed and AWESOME!!!

It'll be up tomorrow evening. Thanks for reading!

 

[Maddie2]

Welcome home from my state! So glad that overall you had a great stay in South Dakota! Sorry to read about some of the experiences you had -- I feel like I should apologize for them! Shame on those rude employees! I'm glad that these instances did overshadow the good times.

Loving your TR! How sweet that your mother had wanted to see Mt. Rushmore since she was 10. What a great daughter you are to make her dream come true.

It's been 4 years since our last trip to "the hills" and I'm thinking we need to make it out there next summer! Last time we stayed at some cabins in Spearfish Canyon, but the Powderhouse sounds like a place we should definitely check out!

Can't wait to read more!

P.S. $36 isn't too bad for a Wax Museum ... we are going to be in Las Vegas this week and I priced out the wax museum ... $90 for 4 of us! But, we may do it anyway as there are not a lot of family-friendly activities to do with the kids. LV would not be our 1st vacation destination, but we will be visiting family.

 

[Amy]

Subscribing - I just found this thread, and I've been dying to see Mt. Rushmore. I can't wait to hear the rest of your trip report!

 

[mrsklamc]

P.S. $36 isn't too bad for a Wax Museum ... we are going to be in Las Vegas this week and I priced out the wax museum ... $90 for 4 of us! But, we may do it anyway as there are not a lot of family-friendly activities to do with the kids. LV would not be our 1st vacation destination, but we will be visiting family.

Do your kids like animals? We really liked the secret garden of Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage.

 

[disneybound31]

Welcome home from my state! So glad that overall you had a great stay in South Dakota! Sorry to read about some of the experiences you had -- I feel like I should apologize for them! Shame on those rude employees! I'm glad that these instances did overshadow the good times.

Loving your TR! How sweet that your mother had wanted to see Mt. Rushmore since she was 10. What a great daughter you are to make her dream come true.

It's been 4 years since our last trip to "the hills" and I'm thinking we need to make it out there next summer! Last time we stayed at some cabins in Spearfish Canyon, but the Powderhouse sounds like a place we should definitely check out!

Can't wait to read more!

P.S. $36 isn't too bad for a Wax Museum ... we are going to be in Las Vegas this week and I priced out the wax museum ... $90 for 4 of us! But, we may do it anyway as there are not a lot of family-friendly activities to do with the kids. LV would not be our 1st vacation destination, but we will be visiting family.

We loved your state! Thanks for posting.

I do want to clarify that throughout our entire trip the putt-putt guy was the only rude person ever. So please don't feel like you have to apologize! Eveyone else was soooo nice and pleasant. And I guess for what it was the museum was not that expensive... I personally thought it was worth it, but after my family said something more than once about it being not very kid oriented it swayed my opinion. Now that I think about it I am not at all sure why they said that because my kids seemed to really like it and used great behaviors the whole time... Day 3 coming up.

 

[disneybound31]

If and when you decide to visit the Black Hills of South Dakota you will quickly learn, as I did, that there is sooo much to see and do there that a week or even two would never do. So since we were working with a paltry 5 days I determined that I would book us on an all day bus tour to get in some of the scenery that I felt might be difficult for us to navigate on unfamiliar roads.

I booked the Fort Hayes bus tour package which is a 9 hour, breakfast and chuckwagon dinner show tour package. It cost $69 per adult and $34 for children. At the end of the day wwe all agreed this was a steal. We arrived @ 6:30 in the morning at the Fort Hayes/Dances with Woves movie set. *my mom just called me to let me know she and dad just came across Dances with Wolves on cable and the scene is the room we took pictures of just a few days ago...she was tickled*

After checking in and paying we looked around the movie sets and gift shops and authentic craftsmen working around the facility. Soon it was time to line up for breakfast and this was served cafeteria style in that you walk through a line and are given a tin plate that would be heaped high with biscuits and gravy, all you can eat pancakes, link sausage and choice of teas, coffee or juices. The gravy/biscuits were just okay. Much better at Powderhouse, but the pancakes were awesome and all you care to eat. The link sausage was greasy looking and I am not much of a meat fan so I passed, but others said it was good. We had plenty of time to eat, visit and look around some more before being called to load up on the buses.

We pulled out promptly at 9 am and out driver started out funny and only got funnier. He was truly in love with the area and well educated. He is a resident and very much into the patriotic themes of the area. He had an entertaining mix of facts and jokes that kept us engaged between stops and kept us prepared to enjoy what we would see next. He helped to point out the beautiful scenery and tell us about the history of the area. He was good. Name was Jim Elliott if you ever want to try to request him.

Anyhow our first stop was Mt. Rushmore and although we had been once we had not been able to do the scenic walk closer to the faces so that was our plan. Our guide gave us one hour before he would be back to get us and we found that it was just enough time to do the walk, which can be strenuous with all the steps/stairs. We did take a TON of pics. I wish we had a bit more time to thoroughly check out the museum in the bottom area, but we should have walked faster!

Soon, we were off and back on the road to see many other sights. Pictures would do a better job, but since I have not yet figured this out let me just list where we went next: Crazy Horse- again an hour spent there... must watch the film! Just moving. One of the biggest highlights of our whole trip. We were in love with the Crazy Horse experience. I made our children promise to return as adults to see the progress. I might put special $ aside in my will for it!

Next, we covered the Needles Hwy, Custer State Park, where we saw tons of buffalo- THAT WAS AMAZING! We fed burros leftover pancakes from breakfast and got some precious pictures of the kids. We went through tiny tunnels and pigtail bridges. After this we stopped at the State GAme Lodge in Custer famous for being the summer White House during Coolidges presidency. Lunch was there and it was on our own. We had an hour and opted to all do the all-you-can-eat buffet for $11 per person as opposed to ordering off the menu at basically the same prices. This buffet was FABULOUS! No, I mean it. The food was easily worth twice that price. And I would have paid it too. Even tho it was for lunch. They had fresh salad fixings, wonderful veggies and the best fried chicken. Garlic, parm mashed potatoes, a carving station with prime rib and horseradish, great breads and a very well done dessert bar. It had apple pie, cheescake, some kind of rich chocolate bar cake thing, blueberry pie, biscotti's, assorted cookies, etc. And the service was perfection. They kept our glasses filled without bothering us at all and took our used dishes immediately. We so enjoyed our experience and all agree they could charge so much more for a captive audience like ours. We can't leave and we have to eat! (Or starve, but really... it's vacation, who's going to forgo a great lunch?)

We got back on the road and headed for Sylvan Lake. Now here is where I wish we had gotten a bit more time. We stopped for only half an hour and after getting in a restroom break we did not have time to make a walk around the whole lake. You know when you see pics or see on tv those most breathtaking scenes that look so unreal that surely they exist only in computer/CGI land? Well, get thee to South Dakota. Specifically Slyvan Lake. Although a man made lake, the huge boulders and gorgeous rock formations are all natural and it was like a religious moment for me to see it in person. I just felt so grateful. So blessed to live in such a country and so awed to stand before such beauty.

So we see more great stuff. Hear more funny commentary. Learn more neato facts. Then we are heading back to the chuckwagon dinner show back where we started. Boy, 7 hours had gone by very fast. Our tickets were printed with our seat assignments and we were front row center! I was told it was because I called so far in advance. (about 4 months before) So it pays to plan ahead! The food was phenomenal! Not all you can eat, but plenty. Choice of chicken baked in gravy (think chicken pot pie taste) or BBQ roasted beef (the best choice IMO) a baked potato, chunky applesauce (it was just ok for me), baked beans, and a biscuit. For dessert there was a large piece of spiced apple cake which was moist and good. Lemonade or coffee (or water) to drink. It was all really good, but the beef was the definate winner over the chicken.

The music started and we were surprised at the quality of these performers. A full band playing some oldies, country gospel, Eagles, classic rock and even some of their own stuff which was really good. So good we almost bought a CD when we left, but didn't. The entertainment lasted about 45 minutes and like the add says, we could have made the lighting of the faces of Mt. Rush if we wanted. But we had already done that so we opted to get a decent bedtime in. We drove away full and smiling by 8:30. Really neat day.

I very much recommend doing a bus tour. This one was a big hit with everyone in our family and not too taxing for our kids. DD7 got in a little nap on the bus after lunch as we were driving straight for about 40 minutes. Oops, I forgot to spefically mention the Cathedral Spires. She slept through that part, mostly. But we got some great pics. Google some of these places. You will be amazed at what our country has to offer if you've never seen it. I know it encourages me to get out there more...

Coming up tomorrow... Day 4- what were we thinking? But we made the most of it! I think!

 

[Maddie2]

If you ever need a job, I'll bet that the South Dakota Convention and Visitor's Bureau would LOVE to have you!

Living her most of my life, I think I've taken much of what we have for granted ... thanks for allowing me to see it through your eyes. Sylvan is particularly beautiful!

More, please.

 

[mdrob214]

If you ever need a job, I'll bet that the South Dakota Convention and Visitor's Bureau would LOVE to have you!

Living her most of my life, I think I've taken much of what we have for granted ... thanks for allowing me to see it through your eyes. Sylvan is particularly beautiful!

More, please.

I agree we tend to take things for granted. I spent my teen years living in Rapid City. I have been to The Powderhouse for lunch, etc. It was worth the drive! I would never have considered telling someone a bus tour as the way to see the hills.

They are beautiful, aren't they? It's hard to explain, and even photos don't do them justice. If you ever get back to the Sylvan Lake area, take a day and hike to the top of Harney Peak. It's not a super-hard hike and the trail's marked. At the top is a fire observation tower and you can see 5 states. Beautiful.

Can't wait to hear more of your trip. It's like going home!

 

[Maddie2]

Do your kids like animals? We really liked the secret garden of Siegfried and Roy at the Mirage.

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to check that out!

 

[Aisling]

Just jumping in to say I visited Mt. Rushmore a few years ago while my brother was stationed in ND in the air force. Reading (and enjoying!!) your trip report makes me realize how much I missed seeing, and now I'm dying to go back and do a lot more sight-seeing. Thanks so much!

 

[disneybound31]

So here we are on Day 4- our next to last trip day. It has flown by as we knew it would.

We are up early with the sun as usual and the boys have gone down the hill to breakfast and bring some back for us as is the deal. We have no set in stone plan for this day and there is some discussion about what direction we will take. The night before half of us wanted to go horseback riding and I had called to get info from the stables nearest to our cabin. (was maybe 200 feet away, well within walking distance) Well, long story short only my sister ended up going. And my dad because he did not want her to go alone. It wasn't so much the cost involved ($26 adult/one hour $23 child/per hour) but that everyone rides alone and I just did not feel comfortable with DD7 getting on a huge horse (and they WERE huge!) for the first time alone. So I drove Dsis and Ddad up the street and Dh, myself, DD, DS and Dmom decided to hit Bear Country.

I am happy with our choice. Bear Country had an entrance fee of $55 per vehicle and the nice guy at the gate even washed the windshield for us! When we thanked him he said 'where you visiting from?' When we replied East Tennessee he came back with "Having a hard time finding sweet tea?" We laughed our heads off and said 'how did you know???' He said that he was from Florida and apparently nobody past the Mason-Dixon line knew how to put sugar in the tea! It's true...you cannot find sweet tea in SD. Maybe somewhere, but nowhere we were!

Okay, back to the bears. Bear Country was really neat. The kids were thrilled and took a hundred pics through the car windows of elk, reindeer, big cats, goats and the bears. Wow. I was thinking maybe 10-20 bears? There had to 100+ bears in there. Roaming all over the woodland. Crossing the road. Looking around the car bumper for food. Rolling around and bathing and playing together. Really cool. I did wonder about car exhaust and if this was really nice to do to bears, but hopefully these things are regulated and they DID have a big area and a bigger non-accessed area behind fences and screens. The walk thru part at the end was not as neat IMO, except for the baby bear part which cold reel you in for days. Why are they so cute?!

Afterward we got a call that our horse riders were finished and going to walk back to the cabin to change and walk on to Keystone (yes, that is how close everything is). Our group (with control of the rental van) were heading for Old MacDonald Farm (and petting zoo). This was never part of our itinerary, but seeing how DD wanted to ride a horse so badly and I just could not make that safely happen I wanted to let her do the pony ride they have there. BTW, in our lodge lobby and I assume other info areas, you can find a coupon for a FREE pony ride at this place. The entranc fee is $9 per adult and $6 per kid, but the coupon saves a few bucks. And the fee is good for 3 days worth of visits, so if you have kids who really love furry animals then it is a good price. We almost returned the next day because the kids really enjoyed themselves here. Did the pony ride first and DD did it twice because we had two free vouchers. She loved it. We checked out the pond and then the rabbits and then.. wait for it.... MINI GOATS!!! Oh my, these beauties were almost involved in a smuggling conspiracy back to East Tn. My son adored these little guys. Well, we all did. Somebody teach me how to add pics! You've got to see these goats and the smiles on my kids faces.

Too soon we get another call asking when in the world are going to be picking them up so we head out and toward Keystone.

Part 2: More fun? Not so much.

My mom thought it sounded fun to go to Deadwood to see the real life Wild Bill Hickock shootout and explore the restored old town. So I researched this for months and just could not find anything else happening there besides the shootout, gambling, lunch at Mustang Sally's, gambling, maybe seeing the gravesite of Wild Bill, gambling and gambling. Get the idea? So I gently tried to steer us to something else for the day, but I failed. They still wanted to go. And in failing we had the most ridiculous last 1/2 day that eventually we all had to laugh at ourselves.

Deadwood is a good 45 minutes from 'home' for us. So we get there and are starving so we head straight to Mustang Sally's and order various cheeseburger and fry baskets (and some yummy corn dog nuggets) and find an outdoor table in the shade because the shootout is going to start in maybe 20 minutes. Our food was fast and great. Really. And I eat maybe one cheeseburger a year. A little expensive maybe, but worth it.

Once we could see the crowd starting to gather for the middle of the street re-enactment we could tell we would have to snarf down the rest of the food and run to see it. My parents had taken the kids with them while we cleaned up our table and when we caught up the kids were no where in sight. I panicked. My mom pointed out to the middle of the road and there, with 30 other kids, stood my son and daughter with their hands raised taking a cowboy oath with one of the actors. Something about doing the dishes and listening to their parents... so funny. Funny, too, because my son had entered into an immediate pre-teen funk when he saw how very little there would be for us to do in Deadwood. Poor guy. I felt his pain. I KNEW there would be nothing, but I cheerfully suggested we hop on one of the mini bus tours that was inexpensive ($8 per person) and use up and hour and show us the sites. Good plan I thought-- but they were all sold out. So we hopped on the cute town trolley ($1) and decided to ride it as faaarrrrr as it would go. Yeah, it went to the motels down the street. As soon as we got on it turned OUT of the town and went straight for the Super 8 (with casino) and the momandpop motel (with casino) and the Best Western (with casino) and about 10 other hotel/motels all with casinos. We got cracked up. We could not get off. We were miles out of town now and just had to suck it up. Then on the way back into town it began stopping at all the big, headliner casinos. This is when my mom finally leaned forward and said "I guess Deadwood just didn't turn out to be what I thought it would be." Ya think??? So we tried to salvage it by going to the museum before we left. Closed. It was 5:30. It closed at 5. We had fed the parking meter to give us 5 + hours. I think we left 3 on it.

We did drive up to Mt. Moriah cemetary and DH and Ddad made the walking climb up the hill to see the headstone and take pics. The rest of us had thrown in the towel. We waited in the gift shop.

Heading back to Keystone we decided to eat in one of their tourist trap cutesy restaurants and mom decided (unbeknownst to the rest of us) that we would have an old timey tin type picture made before we ate. In hindsight I am glad she never mentioned it before we were standing in front of the place because if she had it would not have happened. My kids were so tired they played along and it gave me no time to figure out how to finagle out of it. It turned out very cute and the people there were super nice. I recommend it if you're into that kind of thing.

Dinner was at a place I cannot remember the name of but the menu was great. The decor had a red look about it (if that helps you find it?) and was right beside the photo place. The room we were seated in had a very high ceiling and a huge buffalo painting and skin on the wall by our table. Really neat atmosphere. And that is all I know. Because right after our drinks were served and as we were placing our orders, my DH (very much) accidently knocked over his full and huge iced (unsweetened) tea into my lap. It covered me. Everyone stared. I was up in a flash and mortified. Luckily he was able to quickly drive me the <2 minutes up the street to the cabin to change, but honestly, I was exhausted and the idea of changing and heading back in there and I was still quite full from my huge cheeseburger from earlier that I just had him leave me there. He did not want to because he thought the others would think I was mad at him even tho I was absolutely not. And I did not want the children upset at my absence for our last real meal there, but I really needed some alone time. So I started packing and relaxed with some TV and my book.

My sweet family came bursting in with hugs and my kept-in-the-warmer dinner about an hour later. I appreciated them not giving me a hard time about staying home and the food was still really good! I had a simple salad with 1000 Island dressing and a Chicken Saltimbocca described as poached chicken over pasta with a sage spinach cream sauce. Really yummy. The rest reported equally good dinners all around.

And so ends our last full day in South Dakota.

But we manage to pack in quite a bit before heading into the airport next afternoon.... stay with me!

(Side note: we did not HATE our time in Deadwood... it just wasn't for us. We don't gamble and the shootout, while cute, was prob not worth the 45 minute drive for those 6 minutes of re-enactment. Lunch was good, but again, not worth the time expended. Basically, our time would have been better spent seeing more of the natural region or even re-visiting some of the places we had loved. i.e. Badlands, Sylvan Lake, any of the monuments. Just some things to think about when planning for your family)

 

[mrsklamc]

Gosh this makes me wish there was a 'non-Disney trip' board. I know that's easy to say because somebody has to sponsor it but no one can give disser's good perspective on another destination like fellow dissers!

 

[SleepyMom]

So glad that most of your trip went so well! Looking forward to hearing about your last day.

We just returned last night and had a great time, but we were there to visit family so we didn't do many tourist things. DH and DD did go for a ride in the Hills on his motorcycle one day, my DB, DSIL & Dniece also went on their bikes. DD took a small camera along and got some pics. I visited an old high school friend that day.

We also went to Storybook Island, we took my great-niece who just turned one. It was fun, but I can really see how the place has aged.

Deadwood does nothing for me either, but there are several in the family who love to go. I tag along every once in awhile, but I get bored quickly as well since I don't gamble. Usually I stay back in Rapid and do something with the kids.

Your descriptions are making me think the next trip I need to spend a day visiting Sylvan Lake and that area again, we are going back in September, so maybe then.

Would love to see your pics, try photobucket.com It is really easy to use. Here are a couple DD took from the bike...

Pactola Lake

Mt. Rushmore, from the road as they went by

 

[Simba's Mom]

I'm loving your trip report. I've got a few questions. About how long did it take you to go thru bear country? Also, I was looking at a map last night and found that there are some gravel roads in the Black Hills, they're Forest roads. Are those roads OK for the public to drive on? We're birders and thinking of heading into the woods more to see birds. Also, did you go to the Crazy Horse Monument, and if so, how do you think it was? DH just announced over the weekend that he wants to see that.

 

[mdrob214]

Simba, many of those roads should be fine to travel on. You'll see No Trespassing signs if it's private property, usually. I am not a bir-watcher, but I imagine you'll see many.

OP--Ionly wish I could've given you some great reasons to have driven the 45 minutes to Deadwood. Spearfish Canyon, just outside of town, is one of the most beautiful area in the hills. There's a great park with a waterfall that's just wonderful. We like to picnic there and walk up the water into the falls. Beautiful. It's definitely not well-publicized. Deadwood is all about the gaming now. If you're not into that, then there's not so much there for you. It's boring for kids. I don't go much, but we love people watching there!

 

[dispor]

I'm loving your trip report!

Don't worry about missing that meal at Cedar Pass Lodge. Ours was just "okay."

Sorry the horseback riding didn't work out for your whole group. We did the trail ride at the Circle B and it would have worked out perfect for you. One child in the group rode a pony which was lead by the trail guide. So, they got the whole "trail ride" experience without having to control their own horse. $19/person for a 45 minute ride, which was just the right amount of time for us.

We didn't have enough time to go to Deadwood, so I'm kind of glad to hear that it wasn't all that great anyway! LOL!

A comment about the lunch buffet at the Game State Lodge for other trip planners - The on-line menu shows that lunch is served until 4:30. We assumed that meant the buffet as well since it doesn't have a different end time listed. We got there just after 2 p.m. They said they close the buffet at 2:30. Well, we bought it anyway, assuming it would be fully stocked until 2:30. Yuck! The rice was completely dried out - actually the dryness of uncooked rice!! The vegetables were all dried up, too and there were hardly any left. The carved beef was very good, but getting someone to go up there and carve it was next to impossible. Ugh! It was very disappointing, as I had heard such great reviews for the buffet. I did inform the waitress and asked for a manager, but I think there was a bit of a language barrier going on. I was very surprised at how many foreign people were working there. I had a language-barrier issue with another one at check-out. Very frustrating!

 

[Family Fun Mom]

Thanks for the fabulous report. I've had it in my head to go to Rushmore for a few years now. I'm thinking 2011 will be the year. Your report has me wanting to go NOW! It sounds amazing

 

[disneybound31]

I'm loving your trip report. I've got a few questions. About how long did it take you to go thru bear country? Also, I was looking at a map last night and found that there are some gravel roads in the Black Hills, they're Forest roads. Are those roads OK for the public to drive on? We're birders and thinking of heading into the woods more to see birds. Also, did you go to the Crazy Horse Monument, and if so, how do you think it was? DH just announced over the weekend that he wants to see that.

HI there. I have really no info on those gravel roads. We stayed on the well traveled areas.

Crazy Horse was well worth the $27 car entrance fee. Except we went there with our bus tour so that fee was absorbed into our tour fee... we could have easily spent 2-3 hours here. We felt rushed with just an hour, but I think it is very much worth going to see. Very moving.

Bear Country took us about 1.5-2 hours. The wildlife loop was about an hour and went by fast...we walked around for another 30-45 minutes. 15 of that in the gift shop. Gotta hit every gift shop!

 

[disneybound31]

Simba, many of those roads should be fine to travel on. You'll see No Trespassing signs if it's private property, usually. I am not a bir-watcher, but I imagine you'll see many.

OP--Ionly wish I could've given you some great reasons to have driven the 45 minutes to Deadwood. Spearfish Canyon, just outside of town, is one of the most beautiful area in the hills. There's a great park with a waterfall that's just wonderful. We like to picnic there and walk up the water into the falls. Beautiful. It's definitely not well-publicized. Deadwood is all about the gaming now. If you're not into that, then there's not so much there for you. It's boring for kids. I don't go much, but we love people watching there!

You know, I mentioned to the fam that we were soo close to Spearfish that I thought we could salvage the evening if we drove up there... but everyone was tired and I think most did not hear the idea.

Yeah. Deadwood. Never. Again.