Exploring the Black Hills of South Dakota

Travel America, July, 2001 by Randy Mink

Mountain vistas, wildlife sightings, and trail rides satisfy a city slicker's hankering for the Old West

Driving through Custer State Park one morning after breakfast, we ran into a traffic jam--just the kind I'd been hoping for. Tourists had stopped their cars to gape at the herd of buffalo sauntering across the road, many of us pulling over and getting out to take pictures of the wild `n' wooly spectacle right before our eyes.

In a gleeful frenzy, I shot a whole roll of film of the shaggy brown beasts--calves, cows, bulls. Some were bathing in the pond or grazing on the lawn between the campground and State Game Lodge. Pressing my luck, I edged as close to them as I dared, temporarily forgetting, in my euphoria, park signs that warn "Buffalo Are Dangerous. Do Not Approach."

At a horse sanctuary the previous day, we had mingled with wild mustangs, another living symbol of the American West. Toss in cowboy and Indian lore, mountain scenery, and the presidential faces of world-famous Mount Rushmore, and the Black Hills region of western South Dakota delivers the all-American vacation in one neat package. Because there's a lot to do in a compact area, it's a great family destination.

For my horse-loving teenage daughter Amanda, I tailored a five-day Black Hills getaway around ranch life and equestrian activities, making sure to include Mount Rushmore, a place I'd always wanted to see.

After flying in to Rapid City, we picked up our rental car and drove an hour to the dude ranch-style Blue Bell Lodge, one of four resorts at Custer State Park. Our cabin, nestled in the pines, had two queen beds with pine-log posts, a dining table, TV, ceiling fans, a stone fireplace, and a mounted deer head complete with antlers. At the fire pit outside, we made s'mores one night.

If you like home cooking--pies, fluffy biscuits, or anything with gravy--you'll always clean your plate at the lodge's cozy restaurant, a short walk from the cabins. The Tatanka Dining Room, decorated with deer and elk heads and even full-size bighorn sheep, provides the perfect setting for trying buffalo meatloaf in brown gravy, buffalo pie, buffalo sausage, or thick, juicy buffalo burgers. The Buffalo Stuffable is stew in a sourdough bowl.

Non-adventurous eaters like my daughter stick to the barbecued ribs, steaks, hamburgers, and pastas. But everyone saves room for the pies, with their buttery, melt-in-your-mouth crusts. My favorite was the apple pie with hot caramel sauce.

A massive bison head, wagon-wheel chandelier, and wildlife paintings accent the lodge's small lobby, where resort guests check in. As nostalgic as a well-worn Indian-head nickel and as comfortable as a pair of old jeans, the rustic lodge was built in the early 1920s.

On a two-hour morning trail ride, I was assigned Hangover, a brown-and-white speckled Appaloosa. Amanda got Tumbleweed, a black-and-white, leopard-spotted Appy. Our guide, Brandy, led us and a Minnesota family through forests of ponderosa pine and along French Creek. The ground glittered with shiny "glass" crystals from the granite slabs, boulders, and cliffs that surrounded us. The creek bed, with its ferns and tall grasses, seemed lush compared to the parched hillsides. On some slopes, tree trunks resembling burnt matchsticks recall the 1990 forest fire that came dangerously close to the lodge.

Only the sounds of hoofbeats, birds, and the trickling stream broke the silence. At one point Brandy led us off the trail and into the grass, warning, "Let's be quiet, guys" when she spotted a sitting buffalo just ahead.

Our leisurely horseback ride proved a good introduction to the pine-clad Black Hills, a verdant island rising 4,000 feet above the plains. It was the Lakota who first called the mountains "paha sapa," meaning "hills that are black." Dense forests covering the mountains (18 craggy peaks exceed 7,000 feet) make them look black from a distance.

Most of this Delaware-size region in western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming is part of the Black Hills National Forest. Two hours east, South Dakota's Badlands National Park, both barren and beautiful, presents a stark, eerie moonscape of deep gorges, jagged spires, and bands of colorful rocks.

From Custer State Park we drove south through Wind Cave National Park, en route to the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, near Hot Springs. More than 300 mustangs graze on dry grasslands carpeting a plateau above the canyon walls of the Cheyenne River. A bumpy, off-road bus tour gives visitors a chance to pet and pose with the horses.

Susan Watt, a former Alabama teacher who oversees the ranch, says the mustangs are used to people. Indeed, we were surprised how "tame" and gentle these "wild" horses were--and impressed that Watt knows the name of almost every horse.

The non-profit, 11,000-acre sanctuary was established in 1988 by Oregon rancher, author, and conservationist Dayton O. Hyde, who wanted to provide a home for unadoptable wild mustangs captured by the federal government from overpopulated western ranges.