Visiting South Dakota – Day 1

Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park

For me, beginning a blog post can be very difficult, especially with a travel related post. Usually there are so many different thoughts and ideas going through my head, I can’t get them in any type of sequential order. Writing about my recent visit to South Dakota is no different. So many memorable things happened on this trip, I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll take the easy route and start from the beginning.

The drive from Wichita to Custer, South Dakota is 11-12 hours. Something that can easily be accomplished in one day but when you’re traveling with a 5 3/4 year old, it’s not a bad idea to break it up on at least one segment of the trip. We left mid-afternoon on Friday (yay for working 4 days a week) and drove to a family member’s home to stay for the evening.  The next morning we got up bright and early, loaded up the homemade cinnamon rolls that were left for us and drove the rest of the way to Beaverlake Campground, just outside of Custer.

Before I tell you about our trip, I have to brag about my daughter. You’ll probably never see me boast about her athletic abilities (she gets her lack of coordination from me) and I’m not the type to tell you how much smarter my kid is than yours (because learning is such an individual thing) but I will tell you this kid is one of the best road trippers out there. We’ve gone on some lengthy trips and she rarely complains and never asks the dreaded, “are we there yet?” Instead of going brain dead with electronical devices, she reads, draws and we actually talk with her. And she naps. For hours. The most important part of any good road traveler.

Originally we wanted to stay in Custer National Park but by the time we were 100% positive we were going on this trip, the tent sites were full. After a brief web search, I called a couple of different private camp sites and settled on Beaverlake. Frankly, what sold me was the person I talked to on the phone. Not only did she ask her co-workers to confirm her suggestion for the best tent site (5A – in case you were wondering), she was friendly. Friendly beats a cheap price any day!

Crazy Horse Memorial

Rain was forecast for the entire weekend so we decided to brave the elements and drove to Crazy Horse after setting up our tents. Aside from hearing my Mom talk about it when I was younger, I wasn’t that familiar with the Memorial so we watched the short video about Crazy Horse (which I highly suggest you see) and the family that began the laborious process of carving this chunk of rock. The first blast of rock occured in 1948 and the project continues today. As it was in 1948, the Memorial is funded solely off private money through donations and admission fees. No government funding is provided and for that matter, wanted.

Mount Rushmore

Now, when someone mentions South Dakota, I immediately associate Mount Rushmore. In fact, for the two weeks prior to the trip, all my daughter talked about was camping and seeing the “president’s heads.” At first I was a bit concerned we wouldn’t see their heads with the rainy conditions and low cloud cover, but for a few moments we were able to get a great view of of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. Jefferson….not Jackson. Yes, I had to double check the name of the guy second from the left.

For us, Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore were not all day excursions. We spent about an hour at each location. Had the weather been a bit nicer, we might have spent more time at Mount Rushmore but for us, there were so many other areas we wanted to explore.

A view of the canyon right before Bridal Veil Falls.

Bridal Veil Falls – Spearfish, SD

One of those areas was Spearfish Canyon. About 70 miles northeast of Custer, near the town of Spearfish, is the 19-mile Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. On either side of you will be limestone walls that were carved eons ago by the Spearfish Creek. We entered the byway from the north and quickly came upon a small waterfall called Bridal Veil Falls. It’s one of those falls where you pull over on the side of the road, get out of your car and take a few pics. There didn’t appear to be any trails from the highway to the falls, though if B had a bit more experience hiking, we could have made our own path. Bridal Veil was nice but I enjoyed the views looking down the canyon even more.

 

Roughlock Falls

After being in the car, we all decided we needed to stretch our legs. We decided to hike to Roughlock Falls, even though the weather was iffy (damn rain) and it was later in the day. It was an easy hike, about a mile from the trailhead. Now, when I say easy, I really mean easy. My daughter completed this hike with no issues (aside from being scared that a mountain lion might attack us…damn signs). For my friends who say they “can’t hike,” I say if you can shop all day long at the mall, then you can do this hike.

Our day ended with some really bad Mexican food and a birthday party for my daughter’s stuffed animal. Day 1 of our vacation to South Dakota was a success! We crammed a lot into one day and by the time the rain came again, we were all ready to make a mad dash for our tents and go to bed. We still had a lot of ground to cover in the Black Hills and needed our energy. This post is already ridiculously long (over 1000 words!) so Day 2 will be shared in another blog post. But let me just vaguepost and say, Day 2 was an awesome day.