hsteinle wrote:
I'd like input from anyone who has ACTUALLY drive these routes. Which is best route to take a 40 foot Alfa Class A that is towing an Explorer? A route that preferably has some shoulder space in case I need to pull off.
Route 1=hiway 385 through hot springs and custer OR
Route 2= stay on 79 to just south of Rapid City, then take 16 down to Hill city.
It appears that route 2 is about 30 miles longer, but stays out of the parks area.
Thanks for your input.
We did the reverse of part of your route, on US 385. Left Rafter J Bar Ranch and went down to Hot Springs, then on through Chadron and Alliance. We cut off just north of Bridgeport to head to Scottsbluff.
We were looking for an alternative to going back on US 16 to US 85 through Wyoming. US 385 was a good alternate route, the roadway was fine. There was some construction on the SD side of the border, closer to Hot Springs, but it wasn't a major slowdown. There was some traffic on the roadway, it wasn't desolate, but it also certainly wasn't crowded driving. A goodly number of folks with the same idea we had, pulling trailers or driving motorhomes. Good RV/trailer route to get to/from the Black Hills.
Custer to Hot Springs is not a bad drive at all. Curves, some hills with ups/downs, but nothing significant. Good roadway, it's not overly narrow, has good shoulders (actually pretty much all the way through to Bridgeport). The minor exception to this is a portion where you're driving through the southernmost part of Custer State Park, where it's a bit narrower and curvy, but it's not a lot; not like taking US 16 or the Wildlife Loop through Custer.
Outside of Chadron, to the south, is the Nebraska National Forest. It's a pleasant diversion from the constant high plains one drives through in western Nebraska. There's some ups and downs, but there were climb lanes so it really wasn't much of a problem, just slowed down a bit and dropped to a lower gear.
South of the National Forest it was fairly straight and flat, some ups/downs from rolling hills but certainly not taxing for my Tahoe. Some curves here and there, enough to break up the boredom that can set in.
I thought it was a good route and I'll probably use it again at some point in the future.
You could take SD 79 all the way up from the Hot Springs turn off, it's four lane, but there's really no major reason to go out of your way that route. There's a bit of a climb toward Hot Springs from where US 385/SD 79 meet, but there's a climb lane and it's certainly not overly challenging, and it does level off some when you get to east of Hot Springs.
