The Black Hills, named for their dark appearance from a distance, are a mountain range that emerges from the Great Plains in western South Dakota, extending into Wyoming. Considered sacred territory to the Lakota Sioux and other Native Americans, they were promised the land by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The treaty was broken after General Custer found gold there in 1874. The Black Hills is full of American West and Native American history, gold mining remnants and wildlife.

Spending 5 months in the Black Hills gave us plenty of time to dial in the area and see the sights. We were fortunate to have that much time as most visitors are on a limited schedule of a few days to a week. We still didn’t get to see everything, but we feel like we had time to see most of it, sometimes more than once. See below for just a few of the amazing things to see and do while in the Black Hills.

Custer State Park

If you read my last post then you already know all about the amazing things Custer State Park has to offer. If you didn’t, I recommend you do and definitely check it out. In brief, Custer State park is South Dakota’s first, oldest and largest state park encompassing 71,000 acres of granite spires and open prairie fields. There’s a long list of things to do including: hiking, biking, swimming, fishing, boating, wildlife viewing and more.

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

This is probably one of the most popular must-sees in the Black Hills. Completed in 1941, Mount Rushmore features 60-ft high faces of the U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln carved into the granite mountainside. The site features a museum and interactive exhibits.

Randy and I visited Mount Rushmore multiple times over the summer mostly because we would hike in to see the memorial. There’s a couple different routes you can hike there, but our favorite was starting at the Horse Thief Lake trailhead and connecting to the Centennial trail then to Blackberry trail. This route was about 9 miles roundtrip once you add on walking through the parking area and getting into the memorial. It was a really cool way to see the monument because of the contrast of the quiet hike through the Black Hills and the large crowds of people, cars and busses once you got there. The trailhead at Mount Rushmore also had tie up posts for folks who come on horseback.

Crazy Horse Memorial

In 1948, sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began work on the monumental Crazy Horse Memorial, fulfilling a request by Lakota chief, Standing Bear, to educate and communicate the strength of Native American culture to the community. The monument, still under construction, is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization. The subject of the carving is of Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing to his tribal land. Crazy Horse rose to become one of the most recognized Native American figures of the Lakota Indian Tribe, second only to Sitting Bull.

We had a few opportunities to visit Crazy Horse and were impressed with the sheer size of the monument. The sculpture’s final height is planned to 563 feet with his face measuring 87 feet. The faces of the presidents of Mount Rushmore are 60 feet for comparison. Aside from the colossal sculpture, there were extensive museums and exhibits on Native American history.

Visitors mostly only see the monument from afar. Since the sculpture is an active construction zone, shuttles take visitors to the base of the mountain for viewing. The only way to see it up close and personal is by participating in the biannual Volksmarch. Volksmarch is an organized hike with 5k and 10k trails that take you up the mountain to the sculpture where it ends on the warrior’s arm. We participated in both the Spring and Fall Volksmarch’s and it’s such a fun event if you ever get the chance. Entry fee to monument is waived for donating canned goods to help a local food bank.

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park is located in southwestern South Dakota just east of Rapid City. It’s about a 40 minute drive from the Black Hills. We actually could see the Badlands on our drive across the state from Sioux Falls. The park encompasses 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles, along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. The name “Badlands” comes from the Lakota phrase “mako sica,” meaning “land bad,” and the similar French trapper term “les mauvaises terres,” meaning “bad lands to travel through”. Both names were given due to the difficult and dangerous terrain, which made it hard to cross, farm, or navigate. To visit there is like stepping off a spaceship onto another planet. We jokingly called it “Mars” because of the vast and crazy topography.

There are lots of hikes in the park and the most popular ones (Notch, Window, and Door) are all pretty short, .25-1.5 miles. We only had time to check out Windows and the Notch Trail (which involves a ladder climb) since we had our dog with us and had to leave her in the car (with the AC running). There are other and longer trails and if we had actually stayed at the park in our RV, we would’ve checked them out. Maybe we will some day.

Deadwood and Spearfish Canyon

Deadwood was found in 1870’s when miners moved to the northern Black Hills and came across a gulch full of dead trees and a creek full of gold. This town’s history is in mining and outlaw characters like Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. Deadwood is a little over an hour drive from the Black Hills. We actually passed through the town of Deadwood and continued on to Spearfish where we drove through part of scenic Spearfish Canyon. After checking out Spearfish, we toured the town of Deadwood which is full of shops, saloons and casinos. If history is your thing, we were told there are a couple of great museums on the area and the gold rush. Since we had Sophie with us, we didn’t do the museums. We did stop and have a drink at Saloon No. 10, where it has been said that Wild Bill was shot in 1876.

Devils Tower National Monument

Devils Tower, known for being America’s first national monument, is located in Eastern Wyoming about 2 hours from South Dakota’s Black Hills. This striking formation is a laccolithic formation, meaning it was formed from molten rock that cooled and hardened beneath the Earth’s surface. It’s vertical columns and the hundreds of parallel cracks make it one of the best crack climbing areas in North America. We actually saw climbers on the tower when we visited.

The tower also holds deep cultural and spiritual significance to the plains indian tribes. The monument is also known by the name “Bear Lodge,” and Native American lore tells stories of its formation, including the idea that a great bear scratched the sides of the tower, creating the vertical grooves.

This is a great day trip from the Black Hills area. The drive into Wyonming was stunning with views of buttes coming out of the ground and herds of pronghorn. Not too much time is needed there, as you basically can walk and follow a trail around it while also reading info on how this tower was formed.

Visit Breweries and wineries

We love our craft beer and the Rapid City/Black Hills area doesn’t disappoint. We visited Firehouse Brewery in downtown Rapid City which was a very cool fire station that was converted to a brewery. Breweries in the Black Hills that we frequented were Lost Cabin Beer Co. in Hill City and Cohort’s newly opened satellite brewery in the Black Hills. We loved Lost Cabin’s backyard beer garden. It was the perfect way to end a day of hiking relaxing under the shade trees with a cold pint. Cohort also had a great side yard area to sit and enjoy the brews in the outdoors. We didn’t get a chance to visit Naughti Wines or Sick-N-Twisted brewery but we did stop and sample wine at the With the Wind winery in Hill City. We wish we’d had a chance to visit Sawyer brewery in Spearfish when we were there since we enjoyed their beer on tap in the taproom where Randy worked this summer. There were so many other breweries in Rapid City and Black Hills that we didn’t get to check out but there are plenty of options for local craft beer and wine.

Other things to do:

There are lots of other things to do in the Black Hills. We didn’t get to them all. Other than hiking (which will be a post forthcoming), lots of folks either rented or trailered their own ATV’s to go off roading on lots of trails in the area. When Corey visited, he and Randy rented an ATV and it sounds like they had an awesome time.

There are other sights to see such as Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument. There’s also the1880 Train in Hill City which is a steam train ride that takes you through the scenic Black Hills, Hill City, Keystone and by Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore. The Black Hills is a must-see when traveling out west!