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garmp's avatar
garmp
Explorer II
Mar 26, 2020

Spearfish, SD

The travel club we belong to is having the annual reunion/rally in Spearfish, SD in mid Sept. Being from St. Louis, MO we'd like to take in a number of states before arriving at the reunion. We've never been to that part of the country and want "color our map in", so to speak.
Thoughts at this time are to trek to Colorado's north eastern corner, North Sterling SP, to Custer State Park Blue Bell Campground, some where near/in Devils Tower/Black Hills area, to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and then to Spearfish. After that head back home, spending 2-3 nights per location.
We generally prefer, State, COE, Federal or even county parks. Private parks if we must. Issue being that a lot of parks we'd like to stay don't have electricty, which for us is a must.
Any thoughts, suggestions, hints or just opinions?
Really pretty much open and have plenty of time to plan, just that this lock down should at least be sort of productive.
Also looking for sites, history & eateries.

thanks

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  • agesilaus's avatar
    agesilaus
    Explorer III
    Mar 26, 2020
    You really don't need to spend 3 days at Devils Tower, maybe overnight if you want to catch the early morning light for photography. But the Tower itself is an hour or so to walk around the it, there is a prairie dog town that you may want to visit, I think that's near the cg and that's about it. The site isn't that large. There is a very pricey KOA right outside the gate and there is a National Grassland which I assume has camping not too far away.

    Little Big Horn is about the same, 3 or 4 hours if you take your time. I actually enjoyed it more than I expected but there is a drive thru the battleground, the sites where soldiers were killed are marked, and there are some presentations and Ranger walks. And that's all.

    I'd add Badlands to my list and slot a couple of hours for Wall Drugs for some maximum tourista kirsch. The Minuteman site isn't work the time since they dropped the silo tours. Custer SP is worth a day or two by itself and there are two national caves in the area. And lastly there is a Mammoth Dig site just to the south. And of course Rushmore which I find underwhelming.

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