Planning a Trip to South Dakota & Wyoming

[NJ6PACK]

I am in the early stages of planning a trip to South Dakota and then head into Wyoming from New Jersey.

Things I want to see:

- Mount Rushmore

- The Black Hills

- Custer State Park (I keep hearing it's a must see)

- I want to ride parts of the George S.Mickelson Trail in South Dakota

- Devils tower

Is there anything else worth seeing?

I was looking to take 2 weeks off but will do 3 if needed (Thinking of July), I have to consider the ride from New Jersey and back..... having said that is there anything else along the way in other states worth seeing to break things up?

If anyone else has done this this please give me some advice on time and things to do and see or anything else I need to know....Thanks

[Braces]

Rafter J Bar Ranch is a very nice cg in Hill City SD and the bike trail you mentioned runs right next to it. Hill City and several other small towns in the area are also interesting. Custer SP is great with the wildlife loop and the Needles area but DO NOT take your RV on these areas or Iron Mtn. Rd. If you do not see many bison stop at the small ranger station on the loop and they generally can tell you what dirt road to go down to see them. Walk the Mt. Rushmore park to get the real feeling and value of this monument. The Corn Palace may be hokey to some but I had never seen anything like it before and really enjoyed it.

[Wadcutter]

SDcampowneroperator wrote:
Demoted lt. col. Custer not Gen. ( for his attack on non belligerents) against Gen. staff orders attacked the native encampment on little big horn river in Montana, June 25-26 1876.
(snip) I am a student of the land I Iive on and ( wrongly? ) own.

Actually, if you want to be accurate, the info is not correct about Custer. Custer never held the official rank of General. Custer's rank of general (LtGen and Major General) during the Civil War was a brevet rank. Brevet ranks were very common back then. They are not permanent ranks but temporary appointments to be held for the duration of a certain period. A lot of officers during the Civil War were appointed to brevet ranks. A person appointed to a brevet rank knows it is not permanent and they will lose the brevet rank at the end of the period. A brevet rank cannot be made permanent. His permanent rank all during the Civil War remained Captain. After the Civil War basically was a reduction in force of active military units. Since the brevet rank was a temporary appointment for the duration of the war Custer went back to his permanent rank of Captain. He was later promoted to LTC which is the rank he held at the time of his death. Custer was never demoted because he never held the permanent rank and could not keep the brevet rank after the war.
Just a bit of military trivia. For those never in the military or who never studied such things it sounds a bit confusing since they don't understand officer rank structure, particularly as it was handled back then.

[SDcampowneroper]

Horsedoc wrote:
Not recommending staying there, but if you do, you are visiting history in the area. Right across the barbed wire fence on the side road of Wheels West is where Custer camped on his expedition to ostensibly to run the white men out of the Black Hills. There is a monument to one of his men who died and is buried there. Just up the road a couple hundred yards is where his expedition found gold on French Creek leading to the Indians being driven from their sacred hills. Across hiway 16 and again on the banks of French Creek is the site of the original Stockade settlement the trespassers had built before Custer arrived.

Now the RV Park itself has a great little café for breakfasts and the food is fantastic. There may be a couple of good sites, but the one we were in is too narrow and one could actually fall off the site pad and down an embankment.
Easy access to the area, but not a place we will stay again.

close description, but wrong historical years. Custers expedition was in 1874, the discovery of gold in French Creek at the site of the Wheels West Camp by a prospector in his expedition is what started the rush. In 1875, the first group of gold seekers came to Custer and built the stockade in violation of the 1868 ft. Laramie treaty. In 1876 the massive rush to the Black Hills precipitated the tribes to unite to respond to the invasion of their lands. In response Pres. Grant sent the army under Gen.s Miles and Crook to regotiate a peace with show of force and promise of cooperation to remove the invaders of treaty lands. Demoted lt. col. Custer not Gen. ( for his attack on non belligerents) against Gen. staff orders attacked the native encampment on little big horn river in Montana, June 25-26 1876. The natives were wronged. SCOTUS has awarded the tribes $$$$$$'s judgement for the lands, for which the tribes refuse to accept, demanding the return of all federal lands in the 1868 treaty to their ownership as 'sacred'.
I am not a native american My ancestors came from over there like yours.
I am a student of the land I Iive on and ( wrongly? ) own.

[gkainz]

Horsedoc wrote:
Not recommending staying there, but if you do, you are visiting history in the area. Right across the barbed wire fence on the side road of Wheels West is where Custer camped on his expedition to ostensibly to run the white men out of the Black Hills. There is a monument to one of his men who died and is buried there. Just up the road a couple hundred yards is where his expedition found gold on French Creek leading to the Indians being driven from their sacred hills. Across hiway 16 and again on the banks of French Creek is the site of the original Stockade settlement the trespassers had built before Custer arrived.

Now the RV Park itself has a great little café for breakfasts and the food is fantastic. There may be a couple of good sites, but the one we were in is too narrow and one could actually fall off the site pad and down an embankment.
Easy access to the area, but not a place we will stay again.

and a few miles down the dirt road across the highway criss-crossing French Creek, you'll find where I played Davey Crockett as a young kid ... 🙂 or Davey Crockett played me?
Disclaimer - I know history tells us that Davey Crockett was not in the Black Hills ... but I did have a coonskin cap 🙂

[dodge_guy]

gkainz wrote:
Flintstone Village is now closed but I believe the campground is still in operation as Buffalo Ridge Camp Resort. I don't know anything else about that change except I think it was purchased by an old high school classmate. I guess I don't have any young high school classmates any more ... 🙂

Ya. We stayed there back in 05 and both the theme park and campground were looking run down! Too bad, it was a decent place to stay!

[Horsedoc]

Not recommending staying there, but if you do, you are visiting history in the area. Right across the barbed wire fence on the side road of Wheels West is where Custer camped on his expedition to ostensibly to run the white men out of the Black Hills. There is a monument to one of his men who died and is buried there. Just up the road a couple hundred yards is where his expedition found gold on French Creek leading to the Indians being driven from their sacred hills. Across hiway 16 and again on the banks of French Creek is the site of the original Stockade settlement the trespassers had built before Custer arrived.

Now the RV Park itself has a great little café for breakfasts and the food is fantastic. There may be a couple of good sites, but the one we were in is too narrow and one could actually fall off the site pad and down an embankment.
Easy access to the area, but not a place we will stay again.

[gkainz]

Flintstone Village is now closed but I believe the campground is still in operation as Buffalo Ridge Camp Resort. I don't know anything else about that change except I think it was purchased by an old high school classmate. I guess I don't have any young high school classmates any more ... 🙂

[dodge_guy]

Yes Custer is a good choice. we stayed at Flintstones Bedrock City when the kids were little. they loved checking out all the displays even though they didn't even know who the Flintstones were. then on the way back from Glacier NP we stayed at Horse Thief Campground on Needles HWY just outside Hill City. Hill City is more centrally located.

[RAS43]

Roy&Lynne wrote:

We were at Devils tower this summer and I would suggest not to take your rig in as there were tons of people and its an old park with tight parking

I agree on the parking but there is a KOA right outside the gate that is pretty nice and reasonably priced.

[padredw]

I would consider using the town of Custer as my base. Its a nice little town and centered right in the middle of everything you want to see

Agree. We stayed in Custer's Gulch for a week. Would go back there.

[Roy_Lynne]

If that is your plan, I would consider using the town of Custer as my base. Its a nice little town and centered right in the middle of everything you want to see except Devils Tower. Also you could check out Wind Caves National Park as its only about 20 minutes from town
We were at Devils tower this summer and I would suggest not to take your rig in as there were tons of people and its an old park with tight parking

[CharlesinGA]

Prior to making my trip to the Black Hills, I asked on several forums about the Sturgis Rally. The answers I got from people who lived there was basically that the folks attending the rally showed up as much as two weeks early to ride the area (Iron Mountain Highway and the Needles Highway and several other roads are favorites for scenery) and that after the rally they left quickly and didn't hang around.

As a result of this my planning was to arrive the tuesday after the rally ended (on sunday) and sure enough when I got to Spearfish Campground, there was only one motorcycle camper remaining.

The Sturgis rally dates this year are August 2ed thru the 11th. I would avoid the area in late July if you want to ride the roads and see the scenery comfortably.

Naysayers seem to put down the Crazy Horse Memorial, but I found the Museum of Native American History very interesting. There are a number of small museums in the area, ones I don't mention in my link below would include the South Dakota Railroad Museum and the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum, both in Hill City, neither of which I was able to visit due to time constraints.

I traveled from south of Atlanta to Spearfish and did a whirlwind tour of the area and moved to Alliance, Nebraska for the eclipse.

My trip is documented in this thread.

My Black Hills, Badlands, and Eclipse trip of 2017

You may find some of my links in that thread useful.

Charles

[SDcampowneroper]

RGar974417 wrote:
We were in South Dakota in the late 90's but went to Yellowstone in May,2016. If you can avoid going in the summer,do it.Our route from eastern Pa was Pa turnpike to I-70. First over night stop was Richmond,Ind KOA. We switched from I-70 to Rt 36 across Missouri. Rt 36 is 4 lanes and 65mph. Much less traffic than I-70.We stayed at Pershing State park right off 36. It was $21 a night with electric.Then jump on I-29 and head towards Sioux Falls.We stayed at Waubonsie State Park which is about 10 miles west of I-29. $18 a night for electric. In South Dakota,we stayed at Rafter J campground near Hill City. Very nice but expensive.If Custer had electric hookups at the time we were there,we would have stayed in the park. Other things we enjoyed in the area were Bear Country USA and the Cosmos.

SD state parks all have electric.
Custer State Park was the last to do so in. 2010.
No SD State park has water or sewer at site, wifi or catv.

[RGar974417]

We were in South Dakota in the late 90's but went to Yellowstone in May,2016. If you can avoid going in the summer,do it.Our route from eastern Pa was Pa turnpike to I-70. First over night stop was Richmond,Ind KOA. We switched from I-70 to Rt 36 across Missouri. Rt 36 is 4 lanes and 65mph. Much less traffic than I-70.We stayed at Pershing State park right off 36. It was $21 a night with electric.Then jump on I-29 and head towards Sioux Falls.We stayed at Waubonsie State Park which is about 10 miles west of I-29. $18 a night for electric. In South Dakota,we stayed at Rafter J campground near Hill City. Very nice but expensive.If Custer had electric hookups at the time we were there,we would have stayed in the park. Other things we enjoyed in the area were Bear Country USA and the Cosmos.