Beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota plus a bonus destination!

How many of you have visited the Black Hills? If you have, what are your top 3 must see/do’s?

After a lot of conversations back and forth weighing the pros and cons of heading west over heading to the North East region we headed west! We’ve always wanted to see the Black Hills and we decided to stay 7 days in Spearfish, SD at Chris’ Campground.

Our top 3 places to visit are:

#1 Crazy Horse Memorial
#2 Deadwood, SD
#3 Custer State Park

Other places we visited were:
- Spearfish Canyon
- Sturgis
- Rapid City

We took a few rides through Spearfish Canyon. This is a beautiful ride and there are so many spots to fish, see several waterfalls and hike. You may even see a Mountain Goat or 2 or a few Big Horn Ram.

There are so many other things to do out there that we just didn’t have time to do. I guess that means we’ll have to take another trip out there! A few things we didn’t get to experience are; Mount Rushmore, Badlands National Park, Hot Springs, SD and so much more!

Our #1 place to visit was Crazy Horse Memorial. We took the personal trip up to the top of the memorial. This gives you an up close and personal vantage point of the process and what it’s taken to get the mountain to where it is now. If Crazy Horse doesn’t ring a bell, maybe the Battle of Little Big Horn will. In 1876, Crazy Horse led a band of Lakota warriors against Custer’s Seventh U.S. Cavalry battalion. They called this the Battle of the Little Bighorn also known as Custer’s Last Stand and the Battle of the Greasy Grass. Custer, 9 officers, and 280 enlisted men, all lay dead after the fighting was over. According to tribes who participated in the battle, 32 Indians were killed. Without Crazy Horse and his followers the battle’s outcome would have been much different as he was integral in stopping reinforcements from arriving. Crazy Horse was an integral leader and warrior for the Lakota people.

Although, I do not have any lineage that ties me to the Lakota people; I do have lineage that ties me to the Cherokee Indians. I have always enjoyed learning about our nations native people and like to incorporate these aspects in Aiden’s learnings.

Our #2 place to visit in the Black Hills would be the town of Deadwood, SD. Wild Bill Hickok may come to mind, or maybe Calamity Jane? These are some of the iconic names tied to Deadwood. We took part in a skit of Wild Bill; this skit was pretty cool. It gave us a brief but detailed idea of who Wild Bill was. Deadwood was founded because of the Gold Rush. As you can imagine, it was a rough town filled with prospectors, gambling and prostitution. It’s certainly not that today; Deadwood has it’s share of Casinos, many tourist attractions and of course shopping. When you go, make sure you stop by the History and Information Center; the nice lady at the counter gave us all of the skit times and where everything was. There are reenactments’ in the streets throughout the day and in various buildings.

Our #3 place would be Custer State Park – Wildlife Loop. This is where you’ll see the great Bison, Big Horn Sheep, Antelope, Prairie Dogs, Begging Burros (type of donkey), and a lot more. The Bison are definitely intimidating when you are almost within arms length of them. The Prairie Dogs are just cute little guys. But the Burros are something! They will definitely interact with you (if you dare!). After a little reading and to our surprise, we found out the the park does not frown upon feeding the Burros. So, we decided to bring carrots and man did it not disappoint! If you get the chance to go please be aware that they are wild animals but they also are not shy. They will come right up to you and/or your car.

*Warning* these are wild animals. They can do some serious bodily harm.

***BONUS DESTINATION***

Devil’s Tower in Wyoming! Devil’s Tower was named America’s 1st National Monument by President Roosevelt in 1906. Devil’s Tower is a natural wonder for sure; the Native Americans consider it a sacred place. Ancient peoples have lived around the Tower for thousands of years and their modern descendants still maintain a connection with this place on a physical and a spiritual level.