The first leg of our RV trip was to South Dakota. Our original plan was to rent the RV Friday, but we were so excited we asked if we could get it Thursday afternoon instead. We packed up and headed North about 5:30 pm. The first night we ended up sleeping in a truck stop parking lot which admittedly wasn't the best sleep {thank you truck driver that insisted on revving his engine at 6:30a}, but we were all so excited it didn't really matter.
Friday morning we took off and headed for Badlands National Park. In the event you haven't been to the Badlands yet, I feel I should warn you, 'National Park' is used loosely here. I don't at all mean it in a negative way, in fact this may have been Cullyn's FAVORITE place! It's just breathtaking! Just giving you a heads up that it doesn't offer many {any?} services. Still a must see in my opinion!
From there we Adam saw a sign for Bear County USA and we're so glad he did. It's a drive through zoo of sorts.
After Bear Country, you're super close to Mt. Rushmore {30 minutes if I remember right}. This seems more like a National Park, but is actually a National Monument. I hadn't been here since I was in first grade {if I remember correctly} so the Avenue of the Flags was new and super cool. We went during the day because that worked best for our schedule, but it would be fun to go at night to see the lighting ceremony. They have a gift shop, restrooms, a lemonade stand, an ice cream shop, and a restaurant if I remember right. Bonus that RV and bus parking was super close! :) It's only $10 to see Mt. Rushmore {although they got about $100 out of us between the lemonade, ice cream, and gift shop--lol!}
From Mt. Rushmore, we ate dinner in Keystone {where our server thought I was one of the kids and brought me a kids cup of Sprite -- haha!} and then headed to our KOA {Kampgrounds of America}. We stayed at the Custer/Mt. Rushmore/Black Hills KOA and it was gorgeous! We had a beautiful campsite which was very welcomed after the parking lot the night before -- haha! The kids' favorite part was the huge jumping pillow & playground.
Sadly, Jewel Cave Monument was closed due to Covid. Cullyn would love lost his mind if we could have gone there!
Other things I've done in South Dakota in the past but opted out of {mainly for the sake of time} this trip?
A Corn Maze
You haven't been to South Dakota if you haven't take an Old Time Saloon photo somewhere!
I'm pretty sure we stayed
here one time when I was a kid.
