Day 8 Late, but lucky

We had a tiny mishap in planning, but not too horrible and it was worth spending a cool day in the Badlands. So, we got to Custer around 6:30pm, not horrible, plenty of time to set-up camp, however, we only had reservations starting the next day, so we had to find a first come-first serve site. We weren’t too keen on setting up our tent and then needing to move the next day, so we considered getting a room, but none were available close by. We headed over to one of the first come-first serve tent sites and we found a beauty! Our site was next to the chemical toilets, but no foolin’ this was a positive since the toilet didn’t smell, so if any of us had to go in the middle of the night, no problem. ALSO, this site was much nicer than that which we had reserved, it was walking distance to a small pond, man-make lake, and the hot camp showers. It was lovely.

After setting up our tent, we needed to find some food, fast, it was late and we were hungry. We decided to head to Keystone, the town outside Mount Rushmore, in hopes to find a quick bite and a grocery store. Keystone is a tiny village of about 300 people, it has plenty of fudge and souvenir shops, but no late evening grocery store. We ate at one of the family restaurants (nothing to really write about), and headed to Rapid City, South Dakota’s second largest city (smaller than Columbia, MD, population c.65,000) to find a grocery store. We found a Safeway, did some late night shopping, loaded up with food staples for the next few days and headed back to our tent. We decided to cancel our reservation and stay put for three nights.

For those thinking of heading to the Black Hills of South Dakota:

DO IT!
In the Badlands, if it is going to be hot, stay at the Badlands Inn, it’s a no frills place, but you can’t beat the view as it is the only Inn right at the park’s entrance. Eat at the Cedar Lodge, and do Wall Drug for a little bit for kicks (to cool off)

In the Black Hills, which are just beautiful, stay at Custer State Park and get a tent site at Center Lake Lower loop campground, it’s by the hot showers and the lake is refreshing and very clean. Perfect for kids. DO buy groceries in Rapid City before you get to the park, makes life easier.