Phil,
We stayed in Happy Holiday Resort. They are near lots of the attractions that we saw. People that we were playing road tag with stayed in a Passport America place in Hermosa. There are tons of parks in the area to choose from. I would go back to Happy Holiday again as they keep the campground up and are very friendly.
The things that we did while we were in Rapid City.
1st day
Bear Country USA/ great if you love animals
Keystone/road 1880 train,Gutson Borglum museum,Mt Rushmore in the afternoon and stayed for the night lighting, I would suggest you stay for that, but be sure to take a jacket.
2nd day
Ironhorse highway
Custer State Park, we skipped wildlife loop as we saw Bison before that.
Crazyhorse, we didn't go in as someone in the park told us that you pay to get in and you are still along way from the face. You pay an additional fee to get to a place to take good pictures.
Deadwood we saw the Adams Mansion, $8.00 for both of us, and drove by the cemetary where Wild Bill is buried. There is also a museum that is free that the Adams Family sponsored. We ran out of time, so we didn't go there, instead we drove to Sturgis, big mistake IMHO. We should have stayed and walked through the Adams museum.
3rd day
South Dakota Air and Space Museum...free/donations. $7.00 if you took the Titan missle and base tour.
Journey Museum $6 as we had bought a discount card at Bear Country
Berlin Wall in Memorial Park/ free
South Dakota College of Mining and Technology Museum/free
Cost for my information.......Priceless/glad I could share. Not sure what RPI is so I am clueless there.
The Custer State Park is pricless we entered it on the east gate which is south of Mt. Rushmore. Be sure to stop at the different stops as you will get some breath taking pictures. I am still awe struck by the beauty of the Black Hills. I wish we had time to see the Badlands. Maybe on the next trip if diesel doesn't put us in the poor house. I have been keeping track of prices and will put a post up when I have time. Diesel was $4.59 in several places of Rapid City. Other places were up to $4.79 so shop around with Gasbuddy.
I hate to say that our temps were in the 80's, the forecast was heading higher to the 90's when we were leaving. Enjoy Gods gift to the world in the summer months, not sure about the winter.
Enjoy your time there it is awesome. Be sure to pick up a guide from the state line visitor center as it gives you great information. If we had extra time we would have spent more time in Deadwood. We would have driven the Needles Highway, Hot Springs, Fish Hatchery etc. Again, a guide that we got at the Visitor Center was wonderful information.
Ask any questions that you have and I will try to answer if I can.
Colleen
PS Time to cook dinner.. not proofing this.
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