We kicked off summer with a 10-hour road trip to South Dakota! We had a great time. It wasn’t perfect, but it went exactly as it was supposed to — with unexpected detours, beautiful sights, the license plate game, ice cream every day, cheesy souvenirs, disrupted sleep schedules, spending more money than we thought we would, amazing memories and a few tears.

Eric and I had been to South Dakota together before we had kids, so we knew a little of what to expect, but if you’ve never been, I gotta say it’s way cooler and prettier than you’d think. Loved checking off a new state and two National Parks with the kids!

DAY 1

On the first day, we knew we just needed to get to Spirit Lake, Iowa. It’s a four-hour drive from home and we do it often — in fact, we had just done it the weekend before. So, I wasn’t nervous about this first leg because our kids knew what to expect. It was Finch’s birthday and Rooney had a soccer game, so we didn’t get on the road until about 3:45 pm. Rooney prayed for our trip and we were all smiles! It only took 20 minutes to hit our first detour due to an accident. The kids watched movies on their iPads, Rooney started writing in her travel journal and we saw six different license plates for our license plate game. We stopped twice (once for dinner, once for the bathroom) and pulled into our lake home around 8:00 pm. Thankfully we had all packed in one bag for the night so we didn’t have to unload everything. We went right to bed — it was nice to have a familiar place to lay our heads on night one!

DAY 2

8:05 am Gassed up and on the road!
8:15 am Crossed over into Minnesota!
9:15 am Made it to South Dakota!
10:30 am World’s Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD

Our first stop was at the World’s Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The Corn Palace is a multi-purpose arena/facility that is used as a venue for concerts, sporting events, exhibits and other community events. The outside is decorated every year with seven murals made out of 12 different colors of corn. A local farmer grows the corn and a team of 20ish workers change out the murals in late August and September. It’s a “corny” little place (ha!), but it’s a great stopping point right on the way. Finch only broke one snow globe in the gift shop, so we’ll call it a win.

We were back on the road 30 minutes later, ate lunch in the car and crossed over from Central Time to Mountain Time.

1:15 pm Arrived at Badlands

The Badlands are so fun! Finch said it best: “I can’t believe my eyes. This has to be a poster or something!” I would plan 2-3 hours in the Badlands. It takes a while to drive through, and we wanted to get out at a couple different places. It definitely felt great to get out and stretch our legs since we had been in the car several hours. If you have a fourth-grader in your family, get a national parks pass to save you $30!

We hiked the Notch Trail which is 1.5 miles and took a couple hours. It was one of the most adventurous and strenuous hikes we’ve ever done. To be honest, I didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into, but I’m so glad we went for it. Part of the hike is a 50-foot wooden ladder you climb to the top of a ledge. It’s a lot harder coming down, but you can also slide down a crevice which is what Eric and the kids did, and what I would do next time.

3:15 pm Back on the road
5:15 pm Made it to American Pines Cabins in Keystone, SD!

We unpacked our stuff, then drove back into Keystone for dinner and found a great little pizza place on the upper deck of the boardwalk called Cruizzers which we ended up eating at several times during our stay.

6:00 pm Dinner in Keystone
7:30 pm Back to the cabin for Finch’s bedtime

We were all exhausted from the day!

DAY 3

For our first full day in South Dakota, we decided to head into Custer State Park. I had heard from several people that they wished they’d had more time there, so I wanted to check it out sooner rather than later and make sure we could go back another day if we wanted to (which we did!). First we drove to the south end to Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave is not technically part of Custer State Park, but they are right next to each other. National Parks are experiencing a surge of visitors this year, but even on a normal year I would suggest arriving as early as possible (unfortunately you can’t buy tickets online).

I would not recommend entering Custer State Park without a full tank of gas and a cooler full of food. It’s a lot of driving. For us, that was on top of the fact that we had driven six hours the day before. Our kids were troopers (thank goodness for iPads). Mileage-wise it’s not a lot, but it’s slow driving. You could also get stuck in a buffalo jam, so it’s good to be prepared!

10:00 am Arrive at Wind Cave, purchased tickets for the next available tour (12:20 pm)
11:00 am Picnic in Custer State Park
12:20 pm Wind Cave tour

Wind Cave ended up being our kids’ favorite part of our trip. It’s one of the longest (155 miles so far) caves in the world. My tips are to arrive early and bring a picnic lunch as well as a sweatshirt, because it’s 54 degrees inside. We did the 1.5-hour tour and the kids got a little antsy but overall loved it. Finch even got to turn off all the cave lights to see what it looked like when people first discovered it.

2:00 pm Wind Cave tour ended
4:00 pm Arrived at Sylvan Lake for short hike (Sylvan Lake Shore Trail)

I personally have a love-hate relationship with Custer State Park (it’s my motion sickness, not the park itself). Needles is a super wind-y road and can be scary and stressful. But I would do it a dozen times if it meant I could experience Sylvan Lake again. It’s truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We loved the Sylvan Lake Shore Trail!

Pro tip: Watch the National Treasure movies before you go! You’ll recognize Sylvan Lake!

4:45 pm Left Sylvan Lake for Keystone
5:30 pm Dinner and ice cream in Keystone (highly recommend Benky’s ice cream)
7:30 pm Back to the cabin for bed/unwind

DAY 4

8:00 am Bear Country

Bear Country is a drive-through wildlife park. We arrived right at opening and didn’t see a lot of action. We only needed about an hour there. If you like animals you will probably love it. I really don’t care about wildlife (sorry not sorry), but I do think bears are hilarious. Eric and I had done this before and had a better experience the first time. I would personally skip it next time!

9:45 am Rushmore Tramway Adventures

We had a little extra time before our afternoon reservation so we decided to head back to Keystone to Rushmore Tramway Adventures. They have an alpine slide, ziplining, tubing hill, chairlift, etc. I do want to say that in our opinion it was not worth the money and I much preferred the nature-type things that South Dakota has to offer!

11:00 am Lunch in Keystone
12:00 pm Back to cabin to rest/prepare for afternoon
1:00 pm Black Hills Wilderness Edge ATV rental

One of our favorite things we did in the Black Hills was rent an ATV for four hours. They give you a trail map to help guide you to their favorite spots, and there is also a very helpful GPS app you can download to keep track of where you are.

We ended up on a crazy adventure that included off-roading, jumping a fence, a super strenuous hike, cliff jumping and swimming in Little Falls. It was very spontaneous and thrilling — like you see in the movies when people strip down near a creek and leave their clothes behind!

After returning our ATV we ate a quick picnic dinner and then headed to Mount Rushmore for the evening!

5:30 pm Mount Rushmore

Or as Finch calls it, “The Four Presidents.” Also, he insists that Jefferson is actually “Joe Viden” (Biden). I would plan 1-2 hours at Mount Rushmore, unless you are staying for the lighting ceremony, when you might want a little more time. At this point it is still difficult for us to keep one of our children up past dark, so we didn’t end up staying for the lighting ceremony (Eric and I have seen it).

What to do at Mount Rushmore:

Walk the Presidential Trail
Eat ice cream
Stay for the lighting ceremony

I walked more steps this day than I have in the two-and-a-half years since I got my Fitbit!

DAY 5

Truthfully, we woke up on our last day and realized we had kind of run out of steam. We had gone hard for three days and just kind of needed a low-key day. We had also done everything on our list and probably would have been fine just driving home. So, I would suggest working in some rest throughout your trip.

8:15 am Custer State Park Wildlife Loop Road
10:00 am Sylvan Lake swim

We ended up driving through the Black Hills and going back to Sylvan Lake so the kids could swim, but the water was super cold. I had originally wanted to do a longer hike there (the Sunday Gulch Trail), but none of us were feeling up for it. It was kind of a bummer, but once we all had a moment to readjust, we pulled it together and were determined to make the rest of the day better.

11:30 am Lunch in Hill City

We drove back through Hill City for lunch just for something different, but I would not recommend it. Keystone is much cuter, in our opinion.

1:00 pm Back to cabin
1:45 pm Little Battle Creek Falls

After lunch we went back to Little Falls to swim in warmer water and cliff jump again. Thankfully we had learned you can park and hike to the creek and didn’t have to go off-roading and fence-jumping this time.

4:00 pm Back to cabin
4:30 pm Early dinner

Went back to Keystone for Cruizzers for dinner and Benky’s for ice cream, which was our routine so many days. It was comforting to do it on our last night. Finch said, ”I love our little Keystone!” It was so sweet. We really do love that little mountain town! After dinner, we went into one of the many souvenir shops and let the kids pick out a sweatshirt. $98 later (woof!) and we were on our way back to the cabin for our last night. We were all ready to go home, which I think is a great sign.

DAY 6

8:30 am Quick stop at Grapes & Grinds for smoothies and coffee
10:00 am Walmart stop in Rapid City to stock up on food for the drive home
11:00 am Badlands National Park

We knew we wanted to drive through the Badlands again on the way home, but it was definitely a shorter stop than on our way out. Thankfully we didn’t have a big hike we wanted to do because we really didn’t have the energy.

The drive home for us was more difficult than the drive there (I anticipated this, so it wasn’t a surprise). Thankfully I had a couple “gifts” tucked away for both of the kids that I didn’t need on the way there, and they worked their magic both times. I think Finch had just finally gotten sick of his iPad! Both kids loved these Roller Ringz fidget toys and reusable sticker books. Another idea would be a drawing tablet.

5:30 pm Stop for dinner in Sioux Falls, SD
7:30 pm Made it to Spirit Lake

DAY 7

We had a four-hour drive ahead of us and were ready to get home — so we just woke up, got on the road and were home by noon. Spent the next few days unpacking and recovering!

RECAP

South Dakota is cooler than you’d think! It’s very pretty. I personally would suggest sticking with more of the nature things and avoid the touristy things.

WHERE WE STAYED

We loved our stay at American Pines Cabins. We stayed four nights. There are six cabins total, located just a few minutes outside the main Keystone strip. We had two bedrooms with a queen bed each, one bathroom, a living space with a sofa sleeper and satellite TV, a fully furnished kitchen, and a grill. Each cabin has A/C and Wi-Fi (although spotty), and there is a basketball court and playground for guests to use. The 1880 Train goes right by, which the kids loved waving to but thankfully never asked to ride (Eric and I had done it before and had zero desire to do it again). We would definitely stay here again, or maybe do a couple nights at Sylvan Lake!

Our favorite things

Eric: biking to Mount Rushmore
Kelsey: Notch Trail hike at Badlands National Park
Rooney: Wind Cave tour
Finch: Wind Cave tour

GENERAL ROAD TRIP TIPS

We stretched the 10-hour drive over two days, and I’m very thankful we did. I personally think anything over six hours per day is brutal and takes all the fun out of it.

Fully charged iPads were the true MVP (we used bungees to mount them on the seats in front of the kids), with new movies downloaded & headphones. I think Finch watched Raya and the Last Dragon about 11 times — ha!
Pack a separate bag for your overnight stops so you don’t have to unload and reload everything
Portable chargers for headphones, iPads, phones, etc.
Printable travel journals — Rooney loved them
Cooler with drink and snacks — about half our meals were eaten this way
Bonine if you get motion sickness
License plate game/app — a road trip classic! We saw 44 states and 2 Canadian Provinces on our trip!
Gifts/surprises to use when you need them along the way
Camelbak hydration backpacks for kids while hiking and biking — these are a true lifesaver
If you are visiting a national park and have a fourth-grader, print off a national parks pass for free entrance for your entire family. Don’t be like me and forget to pack it — it must be printed!
Request a visitor guide for where you are going — this really helped us plan!

VIDEO

I made a little video to memorialize our trip. The kids always love watching these over and over!

Have you been to the Black Hills? What’s your favorite thing to do there?