National Park Adventures - South Dakota
- Lamar Shahbazian
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
It was Mount Rushmore that piqued our interest in traveling to South Dakota, and while we were there we decided to see the nearby National Parks (Badlands and Wind Caves) and Custer State Park. While I try to blog about our National Park trips, I had missed this one, but recent interest from my friends Kimi and Harvey motivated me to go back to photos from October 2025 and resurrect the memories from this trip. We did a lot in the week we were there!
We flew into Rapid City, South Dakota, which would be our hub for the entire stay. From there, we explored what was within driving distance, and planned our daytrips for the stay. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore.
Believe it or not, you can actually see Mount Rushmore from the road (first photo below)! Between that and the curvy highway I'm surprised there are not more accidents. The photo above was taken later in the week, a unique perspective that you rarely see, so I decided to make that the cover photo.
They have a huge parking garage when you approach, and this indicates the crowds they get during high season. We were here in early October, so the number of people was totally manageable. We wandered down the flag-lined walkway, took photos from different vantage points, then discovered the path that leads down below the mountain, which gives you unique views. I'm very glad we took the time to hike that, although the 422 stairs intimidated us so we didn't go all the way. As usual, I wish I had done more research BEFORE we visited Mount Rushmore, as reading about the history gives you a whole new perspective.
While waiting for Rick, I was reading some of the information they had in a garden above the parking garage. I've been trying to attract more butterflies to my garden, so I was thrilled to see the echinacea plant which had a BUTTERFLY ON EVERY FLOWER! I also learned a new term "TEK", which stands for Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
From there, we decided to drive the Needles Highway, even though our research said it was windy. Turns out it's no worse than the roads where I grew up, so I guess it depends on your experience. There were several tunnels to drive through, and it turns out they oriented them so that you have a great view of Mount Rushmore from the exits.
Unfortunately, all the other tourists were stopping to take photos, so it was tough to get a good photo without blocking traffic.
I had no idea of the planning that went into the views from this road. A quick Google search didn't show any one site that gave the same info as this sign, so I'll leave it at full-size in case you want to read the background.
In addition to all the views, the drive itself was really pretty. We were hoping to drive to Custer State Park on this day, but a road closure put a damper on those plans. Good thing we had most of a week left!
Back at the hotel, I reviewed the notes I had taken at home when planning the trip. While Rick has a travel spreadsheet with all our flight and hotel info, including driving distances between each destination, my planning is a bit more informal. Since National Parks were high on our list, we decided to go to Badlands the next day. While the government shutdown had closed many park attractions, we knew that since the highway ran right through the park, we would at least be able to gain access. It turns out the Visitor Centers were closed, but otherwise our trip to Badlands was not affected.
If you're curious about the geological background of Badlands, you can find more info here. It turns out the word "badlands" is used not just as the name of this park, but as a general term to describe this type of terrain.
It was about a 45 minute drive to the park, and along the way much of the terrain was flat and boring, but we did stop at the "Wall Drug Store", which is a local tourist attraction. I wasn't too impressed, but then again we didn't have kids with us and we didn't need a meal. Their claim to fame is "free ice water"!
Onto Badlands! Of course, we had to stop for our traditional selfie at the park entrance. Sometimes we get lucky and a passerby offers to take a photo for us, as was the case here. It's funny, often I don't pay attention to the skies when I am taking the photo, but notice it later when I am reviewing them. We had pretty skies on this day!
I could post a million photos of the wonderful geological formations we saw within Badlands. We did take a few hikes, including the "Door" trail which yielded the panoramic photo below.
From the same parking lot, you can take the "Notch" hike. We started down this trail, but were held up at the ladder. It looked doable, but I can imagine the trip down would be even harder than the trip up, so we decided not to wait for the line of people waiting to go up and down. Look at those skies though!
In case you want to hear more about these hikes, I found this blog interesting.
Below is a gallery of photos from the gorgeous scenery we found along the highway.
The next day we decided to take in a different type of scenery, and headed north to the town of Spearfish. It was a cute little town, and we had fun checking out the shops. Rick's favorite was the fish hatchery, which was quite impressive. I think the town had the best "welcome" signage I have ever seen, so I had to get a photo of that.
One of my favorite shops in this town was a bookstore. Not only did they sell books, but they had a very attractive display with other things for sale. My favorite part, though, was the "community room", which promised "Used books, meeting space, and excellent vibes"! I think every town needs a bookstore like this.
The fish hatchery was worth the trip itself! I love learning new things and sharing them with you all. For instance, apparently fish were an important food source during the war. This sign shows how it was promoted "Buy fresh fish - save the meat for our soldiers and allies". One poster went even further "Each more corn, oats and rye products, fish, poultry, fruit, vegetables and potatoes. Eat less wheat, meat, sugar and fats to save for the army and our allies".
The hatchery was in a park-like setting that included beautiful plantings as well as informative signage. All in all, a delightful experience.
For those of you who like fishing, you might appreciate this video. They clearly spent a lot of time and effort to build this hatchery and invite the public to learn from it. I especially appreciate their approach to marketing. Rather than have fish food that you could buy to feed the fish, you could get it for free if you posted on social media.
While we were in the area, we decided to visit the town of Belle Fourche, which has the claim to fame of being near the geographic center of the United States. Apparently it used to be in Kansas before Hawaii and Alaska became states, so it was changed to Belle Fourche in 1959. They have a nice monument you can visit, although apparently that exact spot is not the center, it's like 20 miles north but not near ANY town, so they decided to mark it here. They had a nice museum that we visited nearby.
On the way back to Rapid City, we decided to take the scenic route and went down "Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway". Along the way we stopped for photos and a couple of short hikes. Well worth the time!
The next day we decided to take a trip through Bear Country, U.S.A., which we had spotted right off the highway on our way to Mount Rushmore. Sometimes things like this are hokey, or you end up just feeling sorry for the animals, but this one was well worth it. The first section has you driving through different types of animals in their "natural" environment. This gets you right up close and personal with reindeer, wolves, big horn sheep, bears and bison. Those bears were so tame, you could have literally touched them as they were close to the cars driving by. The only animal I felt sorry for were the wolves as they were continually pacing. I imagine they don't like the warmer weather too much. Or maybe they were wanted to hunt the sheep and deer close by!
After that, you can park and see animals in a more "zoo-like" setting. There were some unusual ones that I hadn't seen before, such as these coatimundi and the javalina. Overall this part wasn't as impressive as the drive-through section but it was still worth the time.
On our last day, we decided to hit Custer State Park and Wind Caves National Park. On the way to Custer, we happened upon the profile view of Washington. I don't think I've ever seen this view published when you read about Mount Rushmore, so it felt like a "bonus" for the trip. Of course, they do a nice job of giving you a turnout to get photos, so we took advantage of that.
Next, we went onto the park and enjoyed a hike at Sylvan Lake. Again, I should have researched more before we left, because it turns out what it's known for is "Breathtaking granite formations, a narrow slot canyon, and views of the location where National Treasure 2 was filmed". Who knew? We weren't able to go all the way around the lake because the trail was closed, but we did get to see some pretty scenery.
It was a bit chilly, around 32 degrees, and that turned out to irritate my throat so I ended up having an allergic reaction after the hike. Luckily I was well-prepared with Benadryl cream for my throat and pills in my purse, so I took those as we drove through the park. We had planned to do another hike called Cathedral Spires, but we ended up just driving by and enjoying the spires from the road.
Arriving in the town of Custer, we had to stop by the Purple Pie Place. This was recommended to me the day before we left by a volunteer at Una Vida. Like several places we visited, they were about to close for the season. While you could tell that in the summer they had lots of flavors of pie and ice cream, we were limited to a few choices. So we tried "bumbleberry pie", which turns out to be a mix of different berries. I should use that term when I am making jam! If you're interested in learning more, here is a recipe I found. We didn't spend much more time in Custer, but proceeded onto Wind Caves, since one of our goals for this trip was to see National Parks!
Last and (in this case) least was our stop at Wind Caves. We started off well with our usual selfie, but we hadn't accounted for the closure being a problem when the ENTIRE NATIONAL PARK IS UNDERGROUND SO THERE WAS NOTHING TO SEE. The caves were closed, and what's above-ground at this park was pretty boring. The best thing we saw were bison and very cute prairie dogs. I tried to get videos but those guys are cautious and I learned that when you exit the car, they stay still.
I'll end with a funny story. We had stayed at a Marriott Extended Stay hotel, so it had a kitchen and one of our first stops was at the grocery store. We figured cooking in was a good way to save money and eat healthier. It worked well for most nights, but one of the things I had purchased before carefully checking the kitchen was a frozen pizza. It turns out we didn't have an oven, just a stove top, and of course the pizza didn't come with microwave instructions. I debated what to do about it all week. Of course being a Flint I couldn't waste it by throwing it away! I had noticed a BBQ in the courtyard of our hotel, so I decided to try my hand at barbequing pizza. I hate to admit it, but I've never used our BBQ at home, Rick always does it while I prepare the side dishes and condiments inside. So I was totally unprepared to operate their BBQ, and it turns out it had some issues. While I was attempting to cook it, I struck up a conversation with a man who was down there on a smoke break. It turns out he had been at that hotel for EIGHT MONTHS while working nearby, and he had hired his son to do the job with him so they were both staying there. So he was pretty well acquainted with the BBQ and tried to help me. It was edible, but just barely. But I had a whole new appreciation for the business travel I did, where the most I ever stayed somewhere was 11 days. EIGHT MONTHS??? No thanks!
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