1000 Places to see before you Die

During the course of my research I remembered I had the book 1,000 Places to See before You Die. (in the USA and Canada). So I decided to see what they thought was
noteworthy enough to include on a bucket list like that.

The very first entry for South Dakota is Badlands National Park.. The book says it’s 80 Miles southeast of Rapid City. Since we’re going to be staying in Rapid City that sounds like a definite stop. At this point I didn’t have much more to go on. I didn’t know if it was all hiking trails or if there were drive tours etc but I penciled it in on my tentative itinerary. The book said the best times to go were Spring and Fall and we were going in early June so we were right on track.

#2 on the list was Custer State Park. Custer State Park is known for it’s buffalo herds and according to the book, it’s 20m miles south of Mount Rushmore. Sounded to me like another point of interest for our itinerary.

#3 on the list was Deadwood. Deadwood is a former gold rush town that is enjoying a second life by preserving it’s appearance as it was in the 1880’s and still offering gambling and casinos among other entertainments. I’m not a gambler and I’ve seen other “Western” towns that are preserved so although I didn’t scratch it off the list, it wasn’t high up. It would be a “filler” if we ran out of things to do.

#4. is the Laura Ingalls Wilder Country, DeSmet, SD. This was a bit out of our way. Located 95 Miles northwest of Sioux falls, DeSmet is in the Eastern side of the State. Unlike out states in the Northeast where a trip from one side to the other can be accomplished in a few hours, a trip to the eastern side of South Dakota from Rapid City would have been too long for 1 day and still have time for sightseeing so this one was scratched.

#5 is The Corn Palace in Mitchell. I had heard of this and by all accounts it is a pretty amazing place. Covered in murals made of corn, it is a multipurpose arena seating more than 3,000 for shows, circuses, basketball games and other events. The Murals are begun in the spring and completed by late summer in time for the Corn Palace Festival in September. The problem , Mitchell is also in the eastern side of SD.
#6 is the reason for the trip, Mount Rushmore. In the book Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore are lumped into one entry. Both are located southwest of Rapid City. So Mount Rushmore is a definite and Crazy Horse is also high on the list.

#7 is The Black Hills Passion Play in Spearfish, SD. Although Spearfish is only a little north of Rapid City, a visit there wasn’t high on our list.

#8. Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Sturgis , SD. Sturgis is only 24 miles north of Rapid City but the rally isn’t until August so we didn’t put Sturgis on our list either.

# 9 is Wall Drug Store, Wall, SD. Wall Drug Store has a slogan “Free Ice water” in the Middle of Nowhere. I kept running across references to Wall Drug SD so I felt it was a “sign” . Sandy wasn’t quite as sold on it as I was but there is more to come on this that we won’t learn until we get to Rapid City.

So that was the list from 1,000 Places to see before you die and it looks like we will be hitting some of those. Both Sandy and I sent for information from the area tourist agency and chamber.
More on that research in future posts!

Tomorrow : Mamouth Dig and Wild Horses!


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