Badlands and Black Hills Adventure

Badlands National Park (90 min. drive). On the way, we’ll make a couple interesting stops. First is Wall Drug Store. It’s one of those all-American roadside attractions that is anything but your average drug store. It’s like a sort of Walmart type store from 100 years ago in the west. A real cool place to meander around for an hour or two. They have souvenirs, restaurants (where you can get their famous 25 cent coffee and free water), clothing stores, and just about everything and anything you can imagine with an old timey and wild west flare. Next up is the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. At the height of the cold war, America had an intercontinental ballistic missile here ready for blast off to hit the Soviet Union in a matter of minutes at speeds of 15,000 mph. Once in the park, we’ll hike the Door Trail, an easy 1 mile out and back with sweeping 360-degree views to welcome you. We’ll check-in to our accommodations at Cedar Pass Lodge (or similar) inside Badlands National Park and gather for our welcome dinner. Depending on the time of year, there’s a ranger led night sky program near the lodge we can attend. (D)

After breakfast, we will hike the Notch Trail in Badlands, which is a 1.3 mile out and back that features a fun wooded swingy type of stair you must ascend and then eventually descend on the side of a small cliff. The hike leads up to a lookout point. Depending on time, we can also hike part of the Castle Trail which weaves through a maze of spires, buttes, sod tables, and fins interspersed with open prairie. Nearby is also an educational Fossil Exhibit. We take a scenic drive now through more of Badlands National Park on our way to the Black Hills area to visit the iconic Mount Rushmore. Overnight K Bar S Lodge or similar. (B, D)

The Back Hills are an almost completely different type of landscape than Badlands, granite hills and mountains covered in evergreen trees. We’ll hike the Black Elk Trail near beautiful Sylvan Lake, which is a 6-mile loop that takes you up to the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains (7,200 ft.). At the top is a historic stone fire tower and amazing views. (An alternate shorter hike is also available, the 3.5-mile Little Devil’s Tower Trail, which is also in the same area and features beautiful views and some light rock scambling.) Afterwards, we’ll drive the scenic Needles Highway in the Black Hills through pine and spruce forests, meadows surrounded by birch and aspen, and rugged granite mountains that feature needlelike formations that seem to pierce the horizon along the way. To wrap up an amazing day, no trip to South Dakota is complete though without stopping to visit the museum and mountain carving of Crazy Horse. We check-in to the historic State Game Lodge (or similar) and enjoy our farewell dinner. (B, D)

After breakfast, we’ll enjoy a short nature walk near the lodge (watch out for the buffalo that are usually roaming around!) and visit the Custer State Park Visitor Center featuring an IMAX 18- minute movie about the Black Hills narrated by Kevin Costner. Group pick-up and on to Rapid City Airport (60-minute drive) for your after 3p departure flights back home. End of tour. (B)