Maps of travel routes and campgrounds.
Another very scenic and curvy road is Iron Mountain Road, that connects the Mount Rushmore area and Custer State Park.
An interactive map:
Bison:
There are three narrow tunnels on this road:
One-way road:
Another tunnel:
Pigtail loop road:
Low narrow tunnel:
The third tunnel:
This tunnel has a view of Mount Rushmore:
Pigtail loop road:
One-way roads:
Mount Rushmore view:
A fun drive.
Perhaps our all-time favorite state park (so far) is Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
A map:
Tunnel:
We had lunch at Sylvan Lake, then did an impromptu hike around the lake:
Sylvan Lake:
GIF of a hidden waterfall behind the lake:
Another tunnel:
Bison Center:
Wildlife Station Visitor Center:
Bison:
Pronghorn:
Prairie dog:
Visitor Center:
“Bison Poo” snack:
The Needles Eye:
Cathedral Spires Trail hike:
Legion Lake Trail hike:
A most excellent park.
We visited Wind Cave National Park a few times. Unfortunately the caves themselves were closed because the elevator was out of order, so we weren’t able see them, but the surface was still enjoyable, with bison, hikes, and more.
Map:
Entrance sign:
Bison:
Visitor center:
Cave map:
Bison:
Loop road:
We went for a hike on Rankin Ridge Trail:
Lookout tower:
A bison strolling along next to the road:
One-lane bridge:
We’ll have to visit again to see the caves!
We stayed at Hidden Lake Campground and Resort in Hot Springs, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A campground with a nice mini lake (a large pond, really).
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Lovely pond, close to Wind Cave NP
This is a nice family-run park in the southern Black Hills and is close to everything you’d want to do there. The town of Hot Springs is cute and has everything you could want; just be sure to heed the detour advice the campground sends you, and don’t try to drive your rig down the main street. There is a bit of a hill to get up to the campground, with a sharp turn at the top. It’s not a big deal, but be careful of oncoming traffic.
We had a pull-through site, which was long enough for our rig and tow vehicle but pretty narrow. The “missing” site between us and the next one on the driver’s side was useful as there is still a power pedestal that we had to hook up to after a town-wide power cut did something to ours. I would’ve liked one of the back-in sites, but they’re too short for a 40′ motorhome. We camped at Hidden Lake Campground and Resort in a Motorhome.
The campground map:
An intereactive map:
Our site:
The power and water were at the rear of the site, rather inconvenient:
There were wild rabbits that liked to hang out around our site:
And some wild turkeys in the campground:
After visiting the Wind Cave National Park, 15 minutes north of the campground, we added its sticker to our coach:
The town had a power cut; it took us a while to notice; we just noticed when it was getting warm, and our ACs weren’t coming on (most other stuff runs fine on batteries):
Unfortunately, our solar system was not working either — but good thing we noticed now, since we’ll be without hookups for 10 days soon, when we attend the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. So I’ll fix it before then (and yes, I’ll have a blog post about that soon):
When the power came back on several hours later, my Power Watchdog reported that the power pedestal had a fault, under voltage on line 2 (only 44 volts):
Fortunately, there was a spare power pedestal next to our site, where there used to be a site, but now has trees (presumably because it was super narrow). So I plugged in to that one:
The office:
They have several signs around the campground with lists of rules; really welcoming and friendly:
The lake:
Craft available for hire (really should be included for guests; I think these remained unused):
Path around lake:
Cabins:
Games:
Landscaping:
Other sites:
A nice enough campground, despite the power issues and somewhat unfriendly signs. We’d stay here again.
We drove our coach 132 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from Badlands, South Dakota to Hot Springs, South Dakota.
Here’s the map route, heading west then south:
An interactive map:
As mentioned yesterday, I added a mount for my 360 camera to the truck; it’s a magnetic mount, but I also secured it with three tethers, out of an abundance of caution:
The camera mounted on the truck; I thought it would be fun to record the view from the truck on travel day:
The truck connected to the coach (aka toaded); ready to go:
After leaving the campground, crossing White River:
Badlands:
Cowboy Corner in Interior, South Dakota:
Badlands:
A prairie dog town:
Bison:
Roadworks:
I caught a stowaway wasp:
Leaving Badlands National Park; the Badlands was good:
The roads were not so good (using my max-zoom technique to show the bumps):
Big sunflower field going to seed:
Dinosaur:
Travel center lunch stop:
The camera was still there (I took it inside to secure and charge it during our lunch stop; check out today’s travel video for the fun footage):
Questionable food choices:
Onward:
The Mammoth Site:
The city of Hot Springs has some nice historic architecture:
Our destination:
Our site:
Our coach:
Again, check out the travel video in the next post for a combination of the usual coach dash cam footage plus the 360 cam perspective from the truck. An unusual view!
(And if you haven’t yet subscribed to the Sinclair Trails YouTube channel, please do so. It doesn’t cost anything, but will help me build my channel, which will let me do more with it.)
We stayed at Badlands / White River KOA Holiday in Interior, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Yet another KOA, quite nice, right outside Badlands National Park.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Cook Shack and close to Badlands NP
What’s not to love about a park that has food service onsite? I definitely appreciate it, especially when other options are few and far between. We had a deluxe patio site, which was located at the end of a row. The site had a few trees for afternoon shade, which was nice. The site was not huge, however, and we had to park our tow vehicle perpendicular to the coach; I still worried about our bumper getting clipped as the roads are pretty narrow and there are some tight turns. It was pretty quiet, and the proximity to Badlands NP can’t be beat. We camped at Badlands / White River KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Stock up on bottled water before arriving. The local water is very alkaline and hard, which made it pretty much undrinkable (unless you like that sort of thing; our three-stage filter and water softener still didn’t improve it). The mosquitos are voracious, so ensure you have repellant if you want to sit outside. Plan ahead and get tickets for the control room tour at Minuteman Missile NHS. You get a pretty personalized tour and a good feel for what it was like to serve there.
The campground map:
We stayed in site #20, which we had site-locked as what looked like the best site when we booked. Once here, and after walking around the campground, I can confirm; it is definitely the best site. There are some very long sites towards the back of the campground, but they are buddy sites (i.e. living areas facing the neighbor), which we hate.
An interactive map:
Our site, on the end of the row:
Using the Starlink on the flagpole:
Our patio:
The patio came with a wacky fire pit thingy, and a charcoal grill, though we didn’t use either, but did use our Blackstone griddle:
The RV park is near Badlands National Park, so we were able to add that sticker to our coach, starting another row (I’ll need a stepstool to add them soon!):
Sunset:
We normally drink water from the dispenser on our fridge. But not here — even the five filters the water passes through weren’t able to make the water here taste good; our test strips indicate that the water has very high pH and alkalinity, which the filters can’t help with:
We did our full suite of test strips; everything else was fine:
Early in our stay the air was rather unhealthy due to wildfire smoke from Canada:
Smoke map (a blue dot near the middle is our location):
We also had lightning and heavy rain nearby (blue location dot off to the right; the weather heading that way):
We got a bunch of packages delivered here; I used my folding cart to collect the heaviest of them:
The office and camp store:
A nice feature of this campground is the cook shack (or “kookhouse”) that was open for breakfast and dinner every day:
Menus:
The next door pavilion for eating and activities:
A tasty breakfast:
A dinner:
There were a lot of flies buzzing around, so I took the dinner back to our site and ate on the patio:
A strange historic artifact; kids, ask your parents:
Swmming pool:
Dog park:
Dog shower, with mini golf in the background:
Path:
Lots of tent sites:
Cabins:
Other sites:
Entrance sign:
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:
Parking in our site:
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:
