Last Updated: 10-FEB-2020

14 days - South & North Dakota, Western Wyoming and home thru Central Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin & UP Michigan

DESCRIPTION

We have wanted to go out to the Black Hills area for many years but, I did not want this to be a pass-thru vacation as I knew the area provided a great deal of places to visit. Also, one of the places that Ken has always wanted to visit was Devils Tower, Wyoming which is just west of the Black Hills. Another goal was that one of the numerous retirement locations that Ken watches is Hot Springs, South Dakota and we were able to explore the area as well as talk to a person at the visitor center / chamber of commerce to get a better feel of the area, which we found interesting.

I was impressed with South Dakota. It felt very free and friendly. We had no issues anywhere we traveled and the weather was great. North Dakota, except for Medora, we were not impressed. Not sure why it may have been that it was just too flat ? Not sure.

Will we go back ? Yes, We both want to ride on the 100+ mile George S. Mickelson Rail Trail, We did not have time to explore the Deadwood / Hill City area much and because of broken elevators at both Jewell Cave & Wind Cave we did not see what we wanted to see at those two facilities.

I would have liked to add a day in Medora to explore more of the Custer Trail.

It was a fun trip !

PHOTOS

The total for photos on this trip were 1,155 on the two page links below

Sept-10 Home -> Sept-16 Devils Tower, Wyoming

Sept-17 Black Hills area -> SEP-22 Home

LODGING

On this trip, the only pre-trip lodging we had booked was the Double D Cabins south of Custer, South Dakota. Everything else we booked the day we were going to arrive using the cell phone. This worked out very well and we did not stay in any disgusting places on the trip.

VEHICLE / RENTAL

We lucked out and got a 2019 Chevy Tahoe with 11,515 miles on it and it still had the new smell. Those of you that know me, know that I am not a fan of GMC products after my terrible experience with a 1984 Chevy S-10 pickup when I lived in AZ. It was junk, the dealer knew it was junk and I had to replace the engine 6 months after I bought it at my expense as Chevy and the dealer did not care. So, I vowed to never own another GM product the rest of my life. Except for some strange shifting, the engine that would run in a V8 or V4 configuration depending on power requirements (It would make a noise when it would do this) and a oil leak smell somewhere, the SUV was very well behaved during the 15 day, 5,000+ mile trip.

We rented from Enterprise (near where I live and has no extra airport / city fees) and except for the vehicle needing the oil changes appx. 1/2 way into the trip, our enterprise experience was good. I called about the oil change and they said just ignore it so we did. It was nice to have a large vehicle and the cost for renting this for 15 days was $1,053 which was very reasonable. We spent $620.72 on gas which was good for a larger SUV.

SECURITY

I was a bit concerned with being in proximity of some of the worst Indian reservations in the USA so I decided to carry. Also, we crossed over the wonderful state of Illinois on the way out so that was a slight concern. As usual we don't stop anywhere in Illinois and try not to spend any money although they did get some toll money from us. What a awful place! The rest of the states were gun friendly. The gun I chose for this trip was the M&P Shield 9mm and I carried plenty of +P ammo. I carried the gun in a Mesa Safe Key Locking bag so it was locked up if we were stopped in Illinois.

We had no issues with critters or people which was good.

CAMERA EQUIPMENT

I shot many photos with (Ken - Samsung 9 Note with a 12-mp camera) (Mary - Samsung 9+ with the same 12-mp camera). We shot all videos with these phones. We have a 256gig micro-SD cards in the phones for plenty of space.

For all telephoto shots, I was carrying a Canon Digital EOS-80D SLR 24.2-Megapixel with a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM Lens. This provided excellent capabilities on the wide open spaces where we were traveling.

For astrophotography, I used a Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens onto the EOS-80D with a RWII-C FreeWave Plus Wireless Remote Shutter Release. All of this was placed on a Benro TSL08CN00 Slim Carbon-Fiber Tripod (Low weight). It was easy to travel with this and again I had excellent results.

For a detailed description of the camera setup I am using, visit my Camera Page

CELL COVERAGE

We use ATT and except when we were staying at Double D Bed and Breakfast Cabins we have very good cell coverage. So no complaints.

ROUTE

Note: The waypoint numbers are present to force the program to display the path traveled.

PHOTOS

The total for photos on this trip were 1,155 on the two page links below

Sept-10 Home -> Sept-16 Devils Tower, Wyoming

Sept-17 Black Hills area -> SEP-22 Home

Itinerary 

Day 01 - SEP 10, 2019 - TUE - Pick up rental SUV - Packing
Day 02 - SEP 11, 2019 - WED - Drive 243 miles to New Kensington, PA - Arrive lunchtime - explore with family and stay over SpringHill Suites by Marriott Pittsburgh Mills, PA
Day 03 - SEP 12, 2019 - THU - Drive 910 miles to Blue Earth, MN.  Stay at AmericInn by Wyndham in Blue Earth, MN
Day 04 - SEP 13, 2019 - FRI - Drive 411 miles to Badlands Inn - Badlands National Park, SD
Day 05 - SEP 14, 2019 - SAT - Explore Badlands National Park, SD - Drive 132 miles to Double D cabins south of Custer, SD
Day 06 - SEP 15, 2019 - SUN - Full day exploring Black Hills area - Stay Double D cabins south of Custer, SD (Jewel Cave National Monument)
Day 07 - SEP 16, 2019 - MON - Full day exploring Black Hills area - Stay Double D cabins south of Custer, SD (Devils Tower)
Day 08 - SEP 17, 2019 - TUE - Full day exploring Black Hills area - Stay Double D cabins south of Custer, SD (Hot Springs, SD / Custer State Park)
Day 09 - SEP 18, 2019 - WED - Drive 239 miles to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND - Stay AmericInn by Wyndham Medora, ND
Day 10 - SEP 19, 2019 - THU - Drive 140 miles (Round Trip) to North Unit - Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND - Stay Americinn by Wyndham Medora, ND
Day 11 - SEP 20, 2019 - FRI - Drive 441 miles from Medora, ND to Walker, MN - Stay Country Inn - Walker, MN
Day 12 - SEP 21, 2019 - SAT - Drive 484 miles from Walker, MN to Newberry, MI - Stay at Americas Best Value Inn Tahquamenon Country, Newberry, MI
Day 13 - SEP 22, 2019 - SUN - Drive 631 miles from Newberry, MI to New Kensington, PA - Stay at SpringHill Suites by Marriott Pittsburgh Mills, PA
Day 14 - SEP 23, 2019 - MON - Drive 243 miles from New Kensington, PA to Home
Day 15 - SEP 24, 2019 - TUE - Return rental SUV - Un-packing

Applications / software I had on my android phone.

  • Google maps - for finding restaurants and points of interest

  • Guru Maps Pro - Very detailed OFFLINE maps that you download the countries / states of choice.

  • Skymap - Free google app to tell me where the stars / planets are.

  • LunaSolCal - Tells me sunrise / sunset & moon information at any location

  • GPS Test Plus - Gives me LAT/LONG and elevation at my current location

  • wifi analyzer - Allows me to see what WIFI networks are available and allows me to specifically connect to a network that I choose.

    When I got home to process all of these photos I used:

  • AVS Image Converter - To resize and print a date code on the bottom right of each photo. Also use this to make thumbnails for the web pages

  • PTGui - An expensive but complex program that I use to combine photos to make panoramic shots.

  • Watermark Factory 2 - Writes a watermark onto each photo. This helps control where my photos go, as I have had a few taken by Smithsonian & Hallmark

    Return to Ken and Mary's trips page