We drove our coach 127 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from Spearfish, South Dakota to Badlands, South Dakota.
Here’s the map route, heading southeast:
An interactive map:
Leaving our site, in a cloud of dust from the gravel:
Leaving the campground:
Heading east on I-90:
Rapid City exit:
A fuel stop at Flying J; we don’t get a discount there, and have to go in to pay, but it was more convenient to our route:
Almost 82 gallons of diesel, a bit over half a tank:
We parked our coach, with the generator running so the ACs would keep it cool, and went in to have lunch:
At the Country Market restaurant in the Flying J:
Menu:
Breakfast for lunch; a little underdone:, but tasty enough:
We had a choice between continuing on I-90, or going on SD-44; we opted for the highway, since we generally prefer them to freeways:
A sea of sad sunflowers, done blooming and going to seed:
Entering Badlands National Park:
Roadworks; driving on gravel isn’t particularly enjoyable in our coach, so we kinda regretted our choice to come this way (we knew that there was roadworks, but didn’t expect a lack of paving):
A prairie dog town (one visible by the fence):
An old cabin and pond:
Interior, SD, population 94:
White River:
Our destination:
Guided to our site:
On his recommendation, we untoaded (unhooked our truck from our coach) before reaching the site, then followed separately:
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:
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.
The only way to get closer to Devils Tower National Monument would be to stay inside the monument at the rustic first-come-first-serve campground. We booked a premium site online, assuming it would have a view of the tower from our site. Not so much. There were big trees in the way, so we only got a slight peep of the lower edge of the tower. For $100/night (with our KOA discount), I was expecting a front-row seat. From our scouting, the best sites for a good view are 100, 86-89. We were in site 38. Site 37 probably had a better view. The other downside of site 38 was that so many people walked through our site, thinking it was the pathway to the bathhouse. Hint: It’s not. The picnic table and the lack of a pathway are clues, people. The onsite diner was a nice perk, but I’m wary of any place with that many flies in the eating area. We camped at Devils Tower / Black Hills KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: You could get up early to get to the tower to beat the crowds, but going in the late afternoon/evening is just as good. Definitely go up the dirt road to Joiner Ridge trailhead and get a fantastic view of the tower at sunset lit up with alpenglow.
The campground map:
Interactive map:
Our site, with a partial view of the tower:
A group fire pit was next to our site, which they lit each night, though nobody used it:
Sun setting behind Devils Tower:
Gift store:
Onsite cafe, always a nice option, though it was rather inundated with flies:
They offered “hayrides”, hay not included:
Across the road is the Devils Tower Trading Post:
We went there for dinner another night, and grabbed some questionable hot dogs (that we think gave us some mild food poisoning):
Post office:
Mini golf:
The mini golf was free, as the boot-shaped swimming pool was unavailable:
Carts:
Other sites:
Site 100 would be an excellent choice for a side view of the tower:
The campground was convenient for exploring Cody and the area. Our site was right next to the office and pancake area, which was nice. The angle to get our big rig out when we left was a little hairy, however. The trailers and smaller rigs in the site next to us usually backed out of their site to avoid the hard left turn around the dump station and propane fill area. Some of the turns in the park were also a bit difficult in a big rig, especially when folks at the ends parked their big trucks into the road. The site itself was level, and all the hookups worked. We camped at Cody KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Buffalo Bill Center of the West is a must-do. Head over to the Bighorn Canyon and Chief Joseph Scenic Highway for some amazing scenery. The Buffalo Bill Dam is also pretty cool.
The campground map:
Our site:
We went out for a scenic drive one day (see forthcoming post), but as we arrived back in town it started to rain heavily, with lightning in the area. When we arrived back at our site, we waited in our truck for several minutes while it rained and hailed heavily, before making a run for it when it eased up briefly:
The campground experienced some ground flooding:
Video of heavy rain, campground flooding, and lightning:
A screenshot of several nearby lightning strikes via the handy LightningMaps.org website:
Flooding:
All that water washed away the landscaping gravel:
Hail residue:
The campground entrance:
Gazebo by the entrance:
Office:
Pools:
Playground:
Jump pad:
Family room:
A nice feature of this KOA is free pancakes for breakfast every day, with sausages and other food available for purchase:
Speaking of food, some samples of other places we patronized in Cody; first up, More Burgers and Shakes:
A close-up of that bear decoration:
There are bears on the back of the bear:
Not overly impressive:
We had a lot of BBQ in Texas, so it was interesting to try Wyoming’s edition at Bubba’s Bar-B-Que; a bit different, but not bad:
Finally, some pizza at Tossers Pizza and Beer; decent pan-style pizza, but not the best:
We were planning to attend the famous Cody Nite Rodeo, but after reading the reviews on Yelp and elsewhere, we decided it wasn’t for us — overly religious, political jokes, sexist jokes, etc. It would have been painful. And apparently not good rodeo anyway.
But they kept trying to drum up customers, driving though the campground every day offering discount coupons:
And a bus to pick up people:
One of several occupants of our driver-side neighboring site, a small toy hauler trailer:
One section of the park has tight buddy sites:
Other sites:
A newer section, where it looked like a couple was shoveling the gravel to make it somewhat level for parking after the flooding:
I mentioned yesterday that we spent two weeks in Yellowstone National Park. Starting from the Lake area, we next turn to the Grant Village and West Thumb area:
Grant Visitor Center:
West Thumb Park Store:
We had dinner at the Grant Village Restaurant, one of the restaurants that require reservations:
The menu:
Beverages:
Appetizers:
Mains:
We saved room for dessert:
After the restaurant, we walked around the West Thumb Geyser Basin:
We stayed here for two nights on our way through Idaho on I-84. We were in the new section, which was being landscaped as we arrived. We were originally in site 31, but they hadn’t finished landscaping it yet, and I could tell from a distance that it was going to be far too short and sloped for us. Since we had the place to ourselves, we pulled into site 24 and called the lovely ladies at the winery to explain the situation. They were more than happy to swap our site and also noticed that I had (like another reviewer) accidentally selected 3 nights, instead of 2, through the online booking site, so she gave me a refund for the extra night. This place is going to be really nice when they finish the landscaping, and I look forward to coming through in the future. The restaurant at the winery was also very nice and worth a visit. We camped at Y Knot Winery RV Park in a Motorhome.
The campground map; we had booked site #31, but ended up in site #24 (read on for why):
This was site 31, occupied by sod pallets:
I asked them to move them, but we then realized that the site was very unlevel (several inches front to back, and some side-to-side), plus they were still working on it. So we decided to take one of the sites that already had sod, and was much more level:
Our site:
The sewer hookup was super inconvenient; good thing I have 40 feet of hoses:
Sometimes I think we could offer an RV park design consulting service, to help people avoid mistakes like this.
Sod cleanup:
Other sites; there were only two other RVs in the park:
A truck with a load of trees:
They took a corner a bit too sharp, and broke the sewer cap (another reason that’s a stupid place for it, though to be fair RVs wouldn’t normally be going that way around the corner):
Unloading the trees:
This RV park is across the road (and part of) the Y Knot Winery; we went there for dinner:
