South Dakota - July 2015

The town where I live has a huge festival every year for the 4th of July.  When I was the Director of the Chamber of Commerce, I always had to work that day (ALL day).

In my new position as General Manager of a local event centre, I intentionally did not book anything on that day (for a variety of reasons).

Long story short, I went to South Dakota last week.

Rapid City is a 12 hour drive from eastern Iowa.

You have to, right?

waiting, not very patiently

He's always had a motorcycle, but this year, he got a Harley, so...

mandatory

Sturgis was surprising.  We did NOT go during the rally, so it was just a very normal small town.

It also has places like these, which we were happy to see, without experiencing the craziness of the rally.

Buffalo Chip

Full Throttle Saloon

delicious!

Emmett

Just next to Sturgis is Deadwood.  I'm absolutely addicted to the HBO show (SO good!).

downtown Deadwood

Mt. Moriah Cemetery

I love cemeteries (I know that's weird), and Wild Bill Hickok, Seth Bullock and Calamity Jane are all buried here.

Calamity Jane fascinates me

Afterwards, we rode through the Black Hills National Forest, stopping at Cheyenne Crossing for an Indian Taco (it was just ok, but apparently is the thing to do), into Spearfish Canyon.

Roughlock Falls

Just off the Spearfish Scenic Byway is the trail to Devil's Bathtub.

The trail is challenging, and requires crossing the stream several times - by balancing across a fallen tree, leaping from rock to rock (or wading through when you just don't care anymore) and sometimes by shimmying across a rock face by your fingernails.

Honestly, I wanted to quit several times.  It was scary!  How cool could it be?

pretty cool

very cool

At the end of every day, we would ask each other what had been the best part.  For both of us (even me!), this was the best part of the whole trip.  It was challenging and humbling and ultimately so rewarding.

The next morning, we went to downtown Rapid City, had a delicious breakfast at Tally's Silver Spoon (consistently ranked as the best breakfast in town) and walked through Art Alley.

The quote reads "It is better to be high-spirited even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent."  

(I love that!)

We then headed to Custer State Park...

Sylvan Lake

view from the famous Needles Highway

out to see the Crazy Horse Memorial,

they have a long way to go

then took the gorgeous Iron Mountain Road...

right after we saw this guy we saw a whole herd,
but they're mean & scary so we didn't stop

to Mount Rushmore.

Some friends of mine were talking one day about the lighting ceremony at dusk, so that's when we went and the only word I can use to describe it is "emotional".

The next day we were ready to get off the motorcycle (300 miles in 2 days was enough for both of us), so we got in the truck and drove out to Wyoming...

to see the Devil's Tower.  

(Having seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind as a child, I couldn't help but find this creepy.)

We ended the night in the small town of Lead, known for having one of the best fireworks shows in the country.

The next day was the long drive home.  

On the way, we drove through the Badlands.  This was supposed to be a 1-hour drive along the scenic byway, but we ended up getting out several times for a better look.  

this place is very interesting

Luckily, neither of us had to work on Monday, because we'd spent so much time in the Badlands we had to stop for the night at midnight with almost 4 hours to go.

But, like everything through the whole trip, it was worth it.