Meeting up in South Dakota

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A May 2011 trip to South Dakota by catsholiday

Quote: Our four week road trip began in Utah and ended up in Nevada passing through a number of States. In South Dakota we met up with my daughter and partner who joined us for the last two weeks of the trip.

Custer State Park

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Attraction | "Where the Buffalo roam"

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Custer State Park, Black Hill, South DakotaPARK HISTORYCuster State Park is a whopping 71,000 acres within the Black Hills area and is named after the infamous General A. Custer who led a scientific expedition into the Black Hills in 1874. At this time gold was discovered which changed the course of history in the area not only for the local tribes but also for the wildlife. In 1913 the South Dakota legislature decided that a wildlife reserve should be created in the southern black Hills to allow the wildlife to become re-established. The park received their first bison from the Scotty Philip herd in Fort Pierre while Pronghorn, elk, bighorn sheep and mountain goats were...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on January 31, 2012

Custer State Park
13329 US Hwy 16A
Custer 57730
(605) 255-4772

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Badlands National Park

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Attraction | "Like visiting the moon"

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Badlands National Park South Dakota WHERE IS THIS NATIONAL PARK? You will find this located in south western South Dakota It is a huge area of about 244,000 acres of the most amazing eroded buttes, tall sharp pinnacles and spires and this is surrounded by a mixed grass prairie. WHAT IS THE BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK? This area was once part of a giant salt water sea and volcanic activity pushed the sea floor upwards. The water drained away and left marshy plains where sabre tooth tigers and other pre historic animals roamed then died. Over time the bodies were buried in layers of river silt or sank into the marshland. Deposits continued over centuries and of cours...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on December 3, 2011

Badlands National Park
25216 Ben Reifel Road
Badlands National Park, South Dakota 57750
(605) 433-5361

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Wall Drug

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Attraction | "Great coffee for 5c!"

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Wall Drug StoreWallSouth DakotaWall is a small town in South Dakota not far from the Badlands National Park. We were going there anyway to visit the Wounded Knee Massacre Museum but even if we hadn’t the advertisements in the magazines combined with the billboards all along the I-90 highway would have brought us in to see what all the hype was about Wall Drug Store!All along the highway the billboards shouted at us:"America's Favorite Roadside Attraction!""Free Admission to this 76,000 square foot wonderland of free attractions!!"5c COFFEE""FREE ICE WATER"WALL:That is a very strange name for a town where does it come from? I...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on November 25, 2011

Wall Drug
510 Main Street
Wall, South Dakota 57790
(605) 279-2175

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Wounded Knee: The Museum

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Attraction | "Wounded Knee at Wall"

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The Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial Museum, Wall, South DakotaWHERE IS THIS – PRICES AND TIMES OF OPENINGLocation: I-90, Exit 110217 10th Ave, Wall, SD 57790.The museum is open daily from 8.30 to 5.30 from May to October Admission price is $6, Senior Citizens over 60 are $5 and children under 12 are free WHY WALL?This very peaceful and well thought out memorial is actually in the town of Wall, some way away from the actual site mainly because the actual site is not easily accessible and they wanted to have it somewhere where visitors could get to reasonably easily. The Museum is located on Interstate 90, north side of Exit 110 in Wall, South D...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on November 16, 2011

Wounded Knee: The Museum
207 10th Ave, Box 348
Wall, South Dakota 57790
605 279 2573

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Crazy Horse Memorial

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Attraction | "The Dream Lives on"

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The second part of our experience of this special placeOUR VISITWe went straight to the enormous visitor’s centre to pay our fee then were ushered into a film which was just beginning. The film called ‘Dynamite and Dreams’ told the story of the monument and Korczak’s efforts, the dream and how the family were carrying on the work. It was a really well presented film and I was most impressed as it gave you a real understanding of what huge efforts and sacrifices had been made by Korczak to get as far s they have with the memorial. They say that now there are so many more people working on the carving with far superior equipment that it will move along at a pace and we may see it com...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on September 18, 2011

Crazy Horse Memorial
Highway 385, 4 miles north of Custer
Black Hills, South Dakota

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Crazy Horse Memorial

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Attraction | "One Man's Dream"

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Crazy Horse MemorialSouth Dakota17 miles South West of Mount RushmoreThis site is not a National park so there is a charge of $10 per adult or $27 per car load but children under 6 are free. It is worth noting that this project is entirely funded by donations and entrance fees, nothing comes from the government.The site is open all year round from 7am till dark in the summer and 8 am till 5 pm in the winter. There is a special laser light show ‘Legends in Light’ which shows every night after dark from Memorial Day week end till Native American Weekend in October ( 10th October).STANDING BEAR’S DREAMThis is a dream in the making. The monument is unfinishe...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on September 18, 2011

Crazy Horse Memorial
Highway 385, 4 miles north of Custer
Black Hills, South Dakota

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Mount Rushmore National Memorial

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Attraction | "A Really Big set of Faces"

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Tourism is South Dakota's second-largest industry and Mount Rushmore is its top tourist attraction. Every year around three million visitors visit this impressive sight.This amazing rock sculpture is a National Monument which was completed in 1941 so is celebrating its 70 years anniversary this year 2011. The idea for this monument was originally conceived as something of interest to bring visitors out west to South Dakota. This huge carving took nearly fourteen years from 1927 to its completion in 1941.GUTZON BORGLUM:In 1924 the sculptor Gutzon Borglum was invited to the Black Hills area to confirm that the carving could be achieved on the mountain. The original id...Read More

Member Rating 5 out of 5 on July 10, 2011

Mount Rushmore National Memorial
13000 Highway 244
Keystone, South Dakota 57751
(605) 574-3171

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Holiday Inn Spearfish Convention Center

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Hotel | "Our Base for Exploring the Black Hills"

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We chose the Holiday Inn as it looked the nicest of the hotels in the area and also I get loyalty points when I stay at a Holiday Inn. The hotel is outside Spearfish itself on one of those out of town places with a few hotels of the same kind just off the Highway. This is a perfect place for exploring Spearfish Canyon, close to Belle Fourche (the geographical centre of the nation) the Black Hills, Deadwood, Tatanka, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and also Devil’s Tower to name but a few attractions around.THE HOTEL:The hotel is quite high and has a good view of the surrounding area. It is actually a big Conference Centre for the area and there were a number of different meeting rooms avail...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 3, 2011

Holiday Inn Spearfish Convention Center
305 North 27th Street
Spearfish, SD 57783
605-642-4683

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Country Inn and Suites Rapid City

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Hotel | "Great base to explore Mount Rushmore and beyond"

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Country Inn and Suites, Rapid CitySouth DakotaThis hotel we booked prior to leaving the UK through the site hotels.com. This was where we were meeting my daughter and her partner part way through our holiday. They could only have two weeks holiday so they were joining us for the last two weeks of our trip. We knew their flight arrived at 10.30 at night local time but that they were going to have had a 20 hour journey because of flight connections so we wanted a nice hotel close to the airport but handy for visiting Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Custer State Park and the Badlands. We decided we would have two nights here so that they had time to recover before packing and d...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 25, 2011

Country Inn and Suites Rapid City
2321 North LaCrosse Street
Rapid City, South Dakota 57702
605-394-0017

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Tri-State Museum

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Attraction | "Centre of the nation"

Quote:

Belle Fourche, South DakotaBelle Fourche which is actually pronounced Belle Foosh is a small town with a population of about 5,000 and is not really the sort of town you would take much notice of when driving through. In fact we did drive straight through on Highway 85 and onto Spearfish where we spent a couple of nights. When we got to our hotel I read in the guide book left in the room that Belle Fourche was the geographical centre of the USA and had a decorative marker to celebrate that fact so of course with a claim to fame such as this we had to go back and check this out. Belle Fourche is located on the northern slopes of the world famous Black Hills in western South Dako...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on June 25, 2011

Tri-State Museum
415 5th Avenue
Belle Fourche, South Dakota 57717
605-723-1200

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Tatanka: Story of the Bison

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Attraction | "Tatanka - the Story of the Bison"

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WHERE IS TATANKA?We spent a couple of days in Spearfish near deadwood and one day spent the day in and around Deadwood. This place was just outside the city on the way back to Spearfish just off Highway 85.Initially we were not sure whether to bother as there are so many museums and the like in the area but as we had been distinctly underwhelmed by deadwood we decided we would take a look at this ‘Story of the Bison’ known as Tatanka which in Lakota means ‘Bull Buffalo’ or ‘Big Buffalo’. This museum is a tribute to the history of the bison in the USA.TIMES AND PRICES:The museum is oopen daily from May 15th - September 30th from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Entrance for al...Read More