Top 5 things to do in: Black Hills, South Dakota

After a week in the Black Hills, South Dakota has become one of our favorite states. I hate to say it, but when we first entered SD I had low expectations. Initially there’s a lot of flat farming fields. It was still pretty…but after a few hundred miles it gets old. We came over the Lewis and Clark Memorial Bridge in Chamberlain and the scenery completely changed. When we first crossed the bridge we immediately felt like we were back in Ireland. A huge storm had just blown over, the sun started to peek through the clouds and there were green rolling fields as far as you could see. We spent a week here at the Echo Valley RV Park and Campground. The owner of the property (Gerry) was kind enough to allow visitors to explore his 50+ acres of land that borders the National Forest. We spent the first half of our days working remote and around 3pm mountain time we would shut down and head out to explore. We wish we had more time in the Black Hills because I think you could easily spend a month here, but I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 things I’d do while you’re in town.

1. Visit Custer State Park
2. Go eat at the Purple Pie Place
3. Visit Badlands National Park
4. Explore Mt. Rushmore
5. Visit Wind Cave National Park

I’ll start backwards from number 5 because we found our favorite places towards the end of our trip and I like to save the best for last!

Wind Cave National Park (Custer, SD)- Quite frankly, this national park has been the most under-whelming park that we’ve visited. We went in the late afternoon and didn’t have an opportunity to see any wildlife other than prairie dogs (they were still cool). We also didn’t get to take a tour of the cave as the reservations sell out quickly. The park ranger told us that if you want to get on the first tour at 8:40am, you should get in line at 7am. We spent 25-30 minutes touring the visitors center and the path that leads to the cave. You can’t enter the cave unless you have a reservation. We took our welcome sign photo and went to Custer State Park afterwards and had a much better experience.

Mt. Rushmore (Keystone, SD)- Don’t get me wrong, we like history but this was really one of those “we should see it since we’re already here” places. It’ll cost you $10 to get into the monument parking area and the pass is good for an entire year (I guess they assume you probably won’t come back?). Although it’s outdoors, pets aren’t allowed so we left our pup in the van with the AC running and spent around 45 minutes here. It was packed with typical “tourists” (I always laugh at the word because we’re technically tourists too…) walking around with fanny packs and taking selfies. Everyone was also walking around with ice cream which made us crave it, so we spent $12 on two double scoop cones (they were huge, it was worth it). Once you get up close to the monument, it’s amazing to see the scale and think of the people that carved it out. There is a large educational center with pictures and artifacts from the carving of the monument that you can tour as well. We didn’t know this, but it took 14 years and a million dollars to carve Mt Rushmore!

Badlands National Park (Interior, SD)- This technically isn’t in the Black Hills region but a lot of people and the locals claim it is.. Badlands is about 2 hours away from the hills so you’ll have to do a bit of driving to get there. Badlands is made up of canyons, rock formations and spires. It reminded us a lot of Death Valley! We arrived after the visitors center had closed so we weren’t able to get any passport stamps or vouch for the gift shop. There was a small shop beside the visitors center that was open and appeared to be a mini grocery mart for the nearby campground. We tried to get reservations at the campground inside of Badlands but it was fully booked (and predicted to be 101 degrees). We spent an hour or so doing the scenic drive and headed towards the Black Hills. If we had more time, we would have done some hiking in the park but we were late to our RV park due to a storm on the way in. We actually got stuck in another bad storm on our way out of Badlands.. temperamental weather in that area!

Purple Pie Place (Custer, SD)- Woah… talk about ridiculously good pie. This is the spot in Custer to get dessert. I have a huge sweet tooth so I have high expectations for the best meal of the day. This place passed the test! They had around 7 different flavor options (I got blueberry and Jeffery got cherry). They drop a dollop of ice cream on top of the pie at the end. YUM! The only thing I’ll say is that I wish the pie was slightly warm.. they were serving it at room temperature. There was a microwave behind the counter but the line behind me was long and I didn’t want to be THAT person. I think all pie should be served warm but that’s just me! They also had chicken pot pies and a few other main dishes that I’m sure were fabulous but we only opted for the dessert.

Custer State Park (Custer, SD)- Our favorite part of the trip in the Black Hills! This park is over 71,000 acres and there is no shortage of things to see. We spent most of our time on Wildlife loop road and at Sylvan Lake. Wildlife loop road was where we first encountered the buffalo and bison road block! It was an amazing experience to see these animals up close and personal. We also saw a few deer on the route but no elk or bear. We headed to Sylvan lake afterwards to walk around the lake. A few major movies have been filmed here (like National Treasure) and it was a great spot to get some exercise with our pup. There are a few trail heads that begin at Sylvan lake as well. This is a great spot to jump in the water as well. There were a lot of kayakers, paddle boarders and swimmers enjoying the water.

Additional Stops– There are a few more things in the area to do that we didn’t (mostly due to time restrictions). I’ve included them below as they come highly recommended by locals and RV park neighbors:

Devils Tower, Crazy Horse Memorial (you can see this place from the RV park), Jewel Cave, Needles highway (be sure to check RV height restrictions, we couldn’t fit) and Reptile Gardens.

RV Lodging– Echo Valley RV Park: We loved this place for so many reasons. First and foremost is the hospitality and customer service. This park is family run and the owner has had the land for over 30 years. He takes pride in the park and allows guests to enjoy the lakes, ponds and scenery. There are paddle boats on the most picturesque lake that you can use to enjoy the water. There are also miles and miles of cleared trails and paths that you can hike. We spent every evening walking around and touring the property. We paid $38 a night for full hookups.

Groceries– Lynn’s Dakotamart: This is the main grocery store in Custer. To be honest, it seemed like the prices were jacked up either because of 1) tourism or 2) it’s actually expensive to bring food in. We aren’t sure which reason is true.. but we did spend 1.5-2x what we would have paid at home to shop here. The store is small and poorly configured causing it to be very crowded. They did have multiple options for each item you needed to purchase, which is always nice. Initially we were going to visit Wild Spruce in Custer for groceries but upon arrival, it looked more like a boutique grocery store and did not have easy parking for RV’s.

Gas– There are a few gas stations in Custer (Conoco, Sinclair, Exxon). If you shop at Lynn’s, they offer a discount for gas down the road from the grocery store. We had just filled up outside of Custer so we weren’t able to use our discount (I think it was almost 20 cent off per gallon!). The gas was modestly priced, I don’t recall being upset about how expensive it was compared to what we’ve been spending on diesel.

Food/Dining- Mt. Rushmore Brewing Company: We only ate out for 1 night while in the Black Hills (gas is expensive and we try to eat in the RV as much as possible). We chose the brewing company because it was conveniently located behind the laundromat we were waiting for our clothes at. We tried 3 different beers (Rooster Res, Trust Buster and American Fabius) and all were good. We also got the trash can nachos to snack on. They literally come on a plate with a mini trash can that you pull off and the toppings all fall in place on top of the chips, pretty yummy! You already know where to go for dessert… Purple Pie!!