Left Cheyenne, WY and got to the Black Hills the same day. We stayed in Keystone, SD (pop. 347) Pictures of Keystone, SD 2016 and camped at Holy Smoke RV Park.
Holy Smoke RV Park.
This was really a nice little park about 5 miles from Mt. Rushmore, National Park Service Mount Rushmore. We took some really cool rides while we were here.
More Pictures of Mt. Rushmore, SD
We rode to Sturgis, SD (pop. 6,883) & Deadwood, SD (pop. 1,270).
Sturgis, Sturgis Website, was just a dinky little town. Maybe 1 stop light at the most. I think the biggest business there was the Harley dealership. We were there the week after the rally (thank God!) The population in this little 2 horse town grows to over 1/2 million people for this one week! I don't even like a crowded elevator! We've been to Bike Week in Daytona Beach, several times. This is a much, much larger city (pop. 61,000) and they get around 1/2 million people for this! There's a lot more room to put that many people!
Deadwood, Deadwood Website, on the other hand was an old, national historic landmark. The cemetery, Mount Moriah Cemetery, is where Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, as well as other notable wild west outlaws are buried.
There's a museum, plenty of gaming halls & casino's, a gold mine and quite a few places to eat & shop.
The HBO series, Deadwood, was based on this little town. When talking to some of the local's, they said that HBO spent quite a bit of time there doing research on the true history as well as the original saloon where Wild Bill was shot. The series buildings were modeled after the buildings in town. Pretty cool.
We took a ride through Custer State Park, South Dakota Custer State Park. Beautiful! We came across a herd of about 200 wild bison. We had to stop as they walked across the rode...coming very, very close to my bike. I think I might have shit a little in my jeans. I didn't move! They just meandered by in no hurry at all!
Georgie took a ride the next day by himself (I didn't mind a little "alone time"). He called after being gone an hour or so and could hardly speak. He had been almost trapped by 1000 or so bison! He said one stopped right in front of his bike and just gave him the hairy eyeball! He wasn't sure what to do. It finally walked off but left him a little nervous.
Also on our list of rides there was Iron Mountain Road (16A), http://www.allblackhills.com/scenic_drives/iron_mountain_road.php. It was part of Custer State Park.
