Tim Smith
We spent 2 weeks in South Dakota. We originally only planned to spend 1 week, but it would have meant driving way further and longer than we like to one Sunday, so we decided to spend a week in Sioux Falls before going to the Black Hills area. We’re glad we did, Sioux Falls is a really cool town! The falls it’s named for are beautiful too and right outside of downtown.
I took a day off of work so we could go check out the downtown area and Falls Park. We went to Falls Park first. The area is just beautiful and we spent quite a bit of time wandering around and taking pictures. After visiting the falls, we went downtown and walked around. Eventually found a little micro brewery and had a beer or two and dinner. We also saw signs advertising Riverfest scheduled for Saturday evening. Riverfest is a huge party they have downtown with live music, activities, food vendors, display vendors and adult beverages! The weather was absolutely beautiful for Riverfest and we stayed just about until the end as did everyone else and it was packed!
We went from Sioux Falls to the other side of the state. Just outside of Rapid City. I took Thursday and Friday off so that we could explore Rapid City and the surrounding area. Mount Rushmore, etc.
We went in to downtown Rapid City Thursday afternoon. We intended to just wander around downtown and take a few pictures and visit a brewery I wanted to go to because we’d seen billboards advertising it for about the last 200 miles of the drive. 😂
When we got there though, they were setting up for an outdoor concert being put on by one of the local bands, “Dakota Country.” We weren’t expecting that on a Thursday evening but what the heck? We stuck around to watch and those dudes were amazing!! They played an awesome mix of classic country and 90s country. Right up our alley and we stayed until they kicked us out. We marveled at the fact that they can have outdoor concerts like this one and the week before and it’s actually comfortable. Nobody roasted or burst into flames. There’s maybe a window of a day and a half that you could pull something like that off in Dallas. Haha!
Friday we went to do a few of the scenic drives in the area. One of these was the Needles Highway. Needles Highway is famous for having some extremely narrow tunnels. The narrowest of which is technically wide enough for our truck to fit through, but it would be pretty close. So, we rented a Slingshot for the day. It’s a 3 wheeled vehicle kind of like a Spyder, but has 2 seats and an actual steering wheel. Holy crap was that thing fun to drive!!
We drove the Needles Highway, the Wildlife Loop, and Iron Mountain Road. We also cruised around some of the other roads in the area just for fun. Actually, we drove Needles Highway twice. Once in each direction. We also stopped at Sylvan Lake because one of my friends suggested it. Did a short hike and climbed to the top of one of the rock formations. Iron Mountain Road if you drive it from South to North, provides some stunning views with Mount Rushmore perfectly framed in the openings of a couple of the tunnels. If you drive it North to South, you miss out on that.
The next day, we went to Mount Rushmore. They do a lighting ceremony every evening at dark, so we waited until late in the afternoon. We arrived an hour or so before dark and took some pictures and walked the Presidential Trail, which gives you a more “up close” view of the monument. It’s .6 miles long and has 422 stairs, so be prepared for that. Once it got close to dark, we set up where we would have a good view of the stage and the sculpture. A ranger gave a 20 minute or so talk describing what presidents are on the mountain and why they were chosen. He also spoke briefly about how the monument was carved, how long it took, etc. It was really very interesting. Once the monument was lit up, they invited all active and former military down to the stage to help lower the flag and fold it. It was a level of patriotism that you don’t see all that often these days. It was very, very moving.
Once that was all finished, it was time to head out. They have a visitor’s center and a gift shop where you could buy souvenirs and things, but they still required masks inside so we skipped right over those.
South Dakota is absolutely beautiful. Especially the Black Hills area. We would definitely go back. And it’s a great area to spend the summer. The weather is perfect.
If you’ve made it this far, leave a comment below. It was brought to my attention that nobody was getting an email notification when we replied to their comments. I’ve revamped the comment system and hopefully that is fixed. Help me test it out!
Behind on reading yalls blog! I keep adding places to our bucket list! Looks like yall had a great time!
That’s ok, I’m behind on writing posts again. Haha! South Dakota needs to be on everybody’s bucket list. It’s beautiful.
Loved the pictures and commentary. Mike and I have always wanted to go there. Probably won’t go so this was almost like a visit there.
So glad you enjoyed it!! If you ever get the chance, it’s well worth the trip! Tell Mike I said hello!
Thank you for your comment! It allowed me to test email notifications and I *think they’re working now. Tell Mike I said hi!