Mount Rushmore National Memorial is one of the most famous monuments in the country, though with some problematic history.
George Washington, First President of the United States:
Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States:
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States:
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States:
Exhibit Hall:
Profile View:
A massive monument in South Dakota is the Crazy Horse Memorial, a mountain-sized monument to an American Indian war leader named Crazy Horse. The monument was started by one guy in 1948, and is far from completion. Official website.
The Welcome Center:
A model of the planned finished product:
Compare the model to the current state:
Progress pictures:
The artists studio:
Progress pictures:
Model:
Another look at the current state:
We did a ranger-guided tour of Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota.
Jenn getting her park passport stamp:
A map of the explored portions of the cave; it’s massive:
Exhibits:
Gift store:
Elevators to head down into the cave:
The jewels of Jewel Cave:
Lots of stairs:
Cave bacon:
Lots and lots of stairs:
Everyone needed to walk through a White Nose Syndrome mat when exiting:
While staying in Spearfish, South Dakota, and later while staying in Hot Springs, South Dakota, we visited several of the nearby scenic byways and towns in the Black Hills area, including Spearfish, Belle Fourche, Deadwood, Custer, and Hot Springs, amongst others. This post is a collection of some interesting pictures from this region. (Several big attractions of this area, including Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore National Monument, Custer State Park, Iron Mountain Road, and Wind Cave National Park, will be covered in separate posts.)
We really enjoyed the Black Hills area, and could see ourselves buying property here one day. Though we still have lots more of the country to see, so you never know!
Here’s an interactive map of the Black Hills area; part of it is in Wyoming, but the majority is in South Dakota:
Roughlock Falls Road, south of Spearfish:
Spearfish Canyon Highway:
Some mountain goats licking something on the road:
Another day, still there:
Custer:
Lunch at the Purple Pie Place:
Keystone:
Deadwood:
Hill City:
Dinner in Lead:
Dinner in Rapid City:
Belle Fourche:
Belle Fourche claims to be the geographic center of the US, when including Alaska and Hawaii:
Hot Springs:
A timelapse of our stay at Spearfish KOA Holiday.
We stayed at Spearfish / Black Hills KOA Holiday in Spearfish, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Another new state, our first visit to South Dakota. A nice campground.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Convenient to all the Black Hills has to offer
Friendly, helpful staff. They gave us so much information at check-in that we were more than set for touring the area. We were guided to our site, where they gave us more information about the campground and amenities. They have trash pickup from the site, which is always a nice bonus. Our site had a nice, wide grassy area and trees for shade. I really liked the picket fences to block the view of the hookups; it’s a nice touch. The site was a little unlevel, and there was constant noise from the interstate, but those were only minor annoyances, and we’d stay here again. We camped at Spearfish / Black Hills KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Farmhouse Bistro is nearby and has excellent BLTs, but don’t try walking there on the nature path–there’s no bridge over the creek.
The campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site, #69, and our neighbor, #68, are two of the nicest in the park; the others in this row are also nice and long, but have narrower grass areas (18 feet vs 25 feet). More space between rigs is better:
Utilities:
Adding the South Dakota sticker to our coach:
Entrance:
Office:
Playground:
Dump station:
Swimming pool:
Dog park:
Tent sites:
Cabins:
Other sites:
A path to a nature trail in a corner of the campground:
Our walk was interrupted (several times) by some runners:
We had a tasty lunch at the nearby Farmhouse Bistro:
Tasty BLT and fries:
A nice RV park, other than the road noise (but that wasn’t too bad inside).
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 203 miles from Medora, North Dakota to Spearfish, South Dakota.
We drove our coach 203 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Medora, North Dakota to Spearfish, South Dakota.
Here’s the map route (the red portion), heading south:
An interactive map, with potential stops marked:
I-94:
Bison:
US-85:
Paladin asleep in his safe space next to the passenger chair:
A sunflower field:
US-85:
A cop car decoration in Amidon:
Another sunflower field:
A cowboy riding a missile in Bowman:
Plane decoration:
We stopped at Grazers Burgers & Brews for lunch, since they had a large dirt area, big enough for our 60-foot coach and truck:
Entering South Dakota:
Up and down on US-85:
Roadworks, with a flagger sitting in a car (makes sense with 90° weather):
Paladin:
Belle Fourche:
Arriving at our destination:
Guided to our site:
The black tank flush on my coach stopped working. Apparently this is a common problem, if the flush nozzles get gummed up with crud or water calcification.
One of the members of my Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners group on Facebook did a post about fixing theirs, which was very helpful. So I embarked on this adventure too.
The hardest thing is getting to it. I needed to remove this panel from the side of the coach:
The right side is easy enough, with a couple of brackets and screws easily accessed with the adjacent basement door open:
But the left side was tricker, with no door there, so I needed to insert a screwdriver between two panels. To protect the paint, I wrapped the screwdriver shaft with painters tape:
Then inserted the screwdriver to reach the four screws:
That done, I was able to remove the panel:
The fresh water fill hose limited how much I could move the panel:
So I disconnected that too:
My little folding work stool was very helpful for this operation:
Let’s have a look around, since I don’t get to see this stuff often. Here’s the black tank; the green circuit board is the See-Level tank sensor, and the yellow rectangle is one of the two sensors for the rear toilet (the other is above that, obscured by wires):
To the left of the black tank is the gray water tank:
Below both waste tanks is the fresh water tank; the pipe in the foreground is the overflow and vent:
Pipes and wires from the bedroom and rear bathroom:
The horizontal-ish pipes are for the central vacuum system:
On the other side of that wall, a vacuum inlet and hatch in the adjacent compartment (we don’t use this vacuum; preferring to use a cordless stick vac):
Anyway, to business. Here’s the culprit, the “No-Fuss” Flush:
I removed it from the black tank; a bit gunky:
Cleaned up somewhat:
I tested it, but it still didn’t work very well, so I drilled out the holes a bit more (on the bottom and sides):
That solved it; the holes sprayed nicely.
To re-mount, I used plumbers putty to seal it:
And re-mounted it (the water is from testing it):
Then just a matter of re-attaching the fresh water fill hose and re-mounting the coach panel.
All better now. Hopefully I won’t have to do that again any time soon, but it wasn’t particularly difficult, other than removing and re-attaching the coach panel.
Medora is perhaps most famous for the Medora Musical, a western themed outdoor musical variety show.
An optional but related part of it is the Pitchfork Steak Fondue, where they put steaks on pitchforks and dunk them in barrels of oil, plus BBQ-style buffet.
A way-too-loud performer:
After dinner, looking down into the amphitheater:
We brought our inflatable cushions:
An actually amusing stand-up comedian:
A fun evening.