National Parks and Recreation

I call this photo: Boys Are Really Bad At Looking Into The Sun. Seriously, these people were complaining every time I told them to turn around for a selfie because “the sun is too bright.” Notice how I’m totally fine? Babies.

Haha anyway, welcome to Wind Cave National Park! We picked up my friend Canada in Rapid City and our fivesome took off for the Black Hills.

I knew going in that the caves at Wind Cave would most likely be closed when we were there. They’ve been redoing all the elevators to get down to the caves since May of 2024 and at the time it said they would reopen in the fall. So I had some hope that it might be done in time, but as of today they’re still closed and won’t be ready until “mid-winter” 2025. Bummer. I still wanted to check out the park, though, because I’d heard amazing things about the wildlife viewing and we were going to be so close anyway.

And I’m glad we we went!

We did the quick Prairie Vista Loop Trail by the visitor center and lamented that we couldn’t even walk into the natural entrance of the caves. I get it, these facilities updates need to happen at some point, but it just sucked to have the entire cave system inaccessible for nearly a year. The visitor center has some cave replicas that you can walk through, but it’s obviously not the same. Okay, I’m done complaining.

We did another quick hike up the Rankin Ridge Trail to see this fire tower (that unfortunately you couldn’t walk up). And then turned off onto the back roads to go find some wildlife!

I did a TON of research about wildlife viewing in this park ahead of time. The biggest takeaway I kept seeing was to make sure you drive down National Park roads 5 and 6. It took some investigating to find out exactly how to get to these roads, but with some Google Maps zooming and panning, I was able to drop some pins and map a route through the backcountry.

And we immediately started seeing wildlife everywhere.

And we had the roads all to ourselves! They were in pretty good shape too. They were unpaved, but easily passable.

The views were incredible everywhere we went. Ironically, once we got off the dirt roads and onto Wildlife Loop Road, we stopped seeing wildlife altogether. So you definitely need to stray off the beaten path a bit to see some cool stuff!

We had a lot of time left in the day so we decided to take our time driving through Custer State Park to Mount Rushmore and experiencing all the scenic mountain roads we could, namely Iron Mountain Road and the Needles Highway.

Iron Mountain Road was a pleasant surprise for me. I hadn’t seen a lot about it in my research, but as we were parked in a picnic area on the side of the road to eat lunch, I was toggling through Google Maps to see what route we should take to Mount Rushmore and came across it. It is a quintessential Black Hills road with one-lane tunnels, steep mountain drop-offs, and amazing views of the monument as we got closer. Highly recommend!

Mount Rushmore itself was kind of just exactly what I was expecting. I feel like the biggest thing I always hear is how much smaller it looks in person, but maybe I had just overcorrected my expectations because I thought it was still pretty cool! And I was way more fascinated with the videos inside about how they built it. I still don’t quite understand how that happens.

From there, it was time to do the thing I was most excited about on this trip: The Needles Highway!

This scenic route runs through Custer State Park and is known for its granite spires that shoot up into the sky. This 14-mile stretch just south of Mount Rushmore offers stunning 360 degree views of the Black Hills as it cuts through the needle-like rocks.

There were a lot of one-lane tunnels cut straight through the rock, just like Iron Mountain Road.

And plenty of opportunities to climb on fun rocks.

At the end of the drive is Sylvan Lake and the trailhead for Black Elk Peak, the highest point in South Dakota.

This is a 7-mile hike with about 1,500 feet in elevation gain that brings you up to the 7,244 foot peak. I was starting to get nervous about altitude sickness at this point. We’d been over a mile above sea level since getting to the Black Hills and I knew it was only a matter of time before it started to bother me. But so far so good!

There are plenty of really beautiful lookouts toward the Needles as you climb.

And overall I thought it was a fairly easy hike, even with the elevation. It was a steady climb with plenty of spots to take breaks and take in the stunning views of the Black Hills.

Even our friends who don’t hike as much crushed it!

So about that cut on my head. You’d think after days of climbing on rocks that it may have been a nature-related injury, but you’d be wrong. I woke up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and upon returning to my bed I lost a battle with the window sill of the Holiday Inn, which for some reason had a very sharp corner that jutted out toward the bed. Not as good of a story.

Then finally, we made it! I was a little bummed that there wasn’t a manifest in the tower at the top to sign your name like at most highest peaks we’ve come across. I also couldn’t find the geological marker for the high point and, while everyone else rested their legs and got some food and water, I went hunting for the little marker. With the help of Google Maps I was FINALLY able to find it a good 100-150 feet across from the tower.

It’s the little things.

We enjoyed our rest of the time at the peak and got some group photos before beginning the climb back down. And then one of my favorite parts of the trip occurred!

James and I were a little ways ahead of the group, chatting away, not really paying attention (or at least I clearly wasn’t) when James hissed, “Nicole!” I stopped dead in my tracks and looked up to see this guy.

I wonder how close I would’ve actually gotten if not for James. Important lesson: always have your head on a swivel!

We waited for the others to catch up and surveyed the situation, eventually deciding to pass him cautiously and see if he was chill with it.

He ended up not really caring about us at all, he just wanted to chomp away. It was really cool!

Don’t let their faces fool you, they had a blast!

And that was it in the Black Hills! I knew I was going to truly love this part of South Dakota and it really lived up to the hype. I think you need several days to explore this entire area, there’s so much to see and do. Just be aware that a lot of this area is seasonal and we came across a lot of hotel and restaurant closures in town. I still think it was worth doing at this time of year and we really lucked out with the weather. Also, I’ll do anything to avoid crowds. But just something to be aware of.

I feel like people were really judging how excited I was for this Dakota trip when we found out BU hockey would be playing out here over a year ago, but don’t sleep on the Dakotas! There is a lot of beauty and fun to be found in these “fly-over states.” Don’t knock it ’til you try it.