Our next stop was South Dakota and we didn’t expect to have as much fun as we would here. But we got up early and headed to Deadwood, SD. It was only about 1.5 hours away from Devil’s Tower and is an old Western Town. It still has that feel of being a western saloon type place, with gaming halls and bars all a long main street. The whole town is placed on the national historic register of sites. We parked in a garage and walked down the main street. They advertise ’76 days, their early celebration/parade about 1876 and the gold/mining surge in this area.
As you walk down main street you see 2 wooden signs. One noting the site of the capture of Jack McCall, the man who shot and killed Wild Bill Hickok, and a second marking the location of the saloon where Wild Bill was shot. However, our first stop was the old train station at the end of Main street. They had a little exhibit and some actual fixtures and benches from when this was an operating rail station.
It should also been noted that we have seen probably thousands of motorcycles this past week. Not only are we geographically close to Sturgis, SD but we are also within a week of the Annual Rally (i think its the 75th year) of Sturgis. This is where an estimated 1 million bikers come for a week long rally in the Black Hills. Also every gift shop and gas station you go into around here has STURGIS swag for sale.
Around the corner from the rail station is the Adam Museum. This is the oldest museum in the West and had a great collection of some things from the “Wild West” days. They also had an exhibit on some other “well known” outlaws from the time. They had some Wild Bill memorabilia and other Deadwood specific things. It was a free museum and was worth our time.
We went back to main street to try to find the #10 Saloon where Wild Bill was shot and killed. We found one that we thought was it, it was cool and had sawdust on the floors, but we realized it was not THE original one. We walked a few blocks down and found the marker.
We went in and they were just getting ready to start a tour. So at 10 am for $8 you get an hour long tour and a beer of your choice. A reenact led us into the downstairs where the original saloon was. She gave some great history about the establishment of Deadwood, the gold mining and of coarse Wild Bill and his death. We got to see the exact spot where it all went down.
After that we wanted to head to Mount Rushmore and figured we spend as long as we could in Deadwood. After you park you walk up to the site of Mount Rushmore. There are flags from all the states lining the way. We stopped in the gift shop and there was a man in there that actually worked on Mount Rushmore. John went to ask him a question and before we knew it the guy signed a book and John was obligated to buy it for $12. How could you tell this old guy “no”?
We walked up to Mount Rushmore and took some great pictures. There isn’t much else to do there besides just check it out, so we headed back to the car for the next stop.
Wall, SD was our next stop. It is basically just a random town in South Dakota about 15 minutes from the Badlands National Park, but is popular for the Wall Drug Store. This store became a roadside attraction/ family fun center when the original owner advertised “free ice water” to try to get people to stop. They still give out the free ice water, but now they have a ton of shops, souvenirs, homemade ice cream, a giant t-rex, shooting gallery, and everything else under the sun. It was a labrynth to walk around and we lost each other a few times!
There was also a visitor center for the National Grasslands that we checked out. They had everything you needed to known about the grasses of the mid-west, as well as a video of a prairie dog and back-footed ferret fighting.
The Badlands National Park was only a few miles away from Wall and we had reservations to camp there. The Badlands basically rises out of the prairie and is really cool. We got in and set up out tent before sunset. The colors of the sky were beautiful and the sunflowers were out all over.
We went to the Ranger evening program where a Ranger gave a presentation about the park, the area, and then focused on the birds of the park. She showed us pictures, played, their calls, and gave some information about them and other animals. It was a beautiful night and we all sat in the outdoor amphitheater. When the program was done, around 9:30pm or so, the evening night sky portion began. We have been wanting to go to one of these since a couple of the parks we have been at are supposed to be great night sky parks. Finally we had the time and weather was right for it. The person leading it had a laser pointer and walked us through all of the constellations visible to us. They also had 2 NASA grade telescopes set up. We were able to see Saturn, still far away but you could see the rings! But our favorite was the telescope set on the moon. We got to see the moon so clearly, you could see the craters and all the detail. It was amazing, something you would see as like a NASA image of the moon online.
We hung around for a while and checked it out some more but he had an early morning the next day. It was extremely windy in the Badlands but the weather stayed pretty good! So far South Dakota has been pretty awesome!
Dietz Summer Road Trip 