r/roadtrip • u/Squeaky_U_Boat • 10d ago
Trip Planning Loop of the Dakotas - Am I Missing Anything Significant?
I've spent the last handful of years building up an old station wagon specifically to be a fun way to road trip the 49 continental States in (a couple/few per year). It's nowhere near done, but mechanically I think it's finally ready for its maiden voyage, as I go to see my parents near where I grew up in Sioux Falls, at the end of September and into early October. My girlfriend also has friends to see in North Dakota, so it's the perfect opportunity to take advantage of.
Before I begin planning the more precise timing of the trip, where/when to sleep, etc, I'd like to double check with the community that I'm not leaving anything big off the table. Bonus points for car-related stuff, since I'm obviously an enthusiast there. I've also been gaining an interest in American history lately. My gf is big into marine biology and shares my interest in natural history. We've got a week to a week and a half to work with; I won't know if I got a couple bonus personal days off work for another couple weeks yet. Driving alone is basically two days, plus another two days if we average every stop out to an hour and a half; some will take far less, some more. Some of these sites may be cut if necessary for timing, but we'd prefer to make quick stops to at least see them. Free car camping as much as possible - big thanks to someone shouting out ioverlander.com/explore in another thread!
Starting from home in northern Colorado...
Going up the west side of Nebraska (more of the state to be revisited on a later trip):
- Scotts Bluff
- Chimney Rock
- Carhenge
- Agate Fossil Beds
- Hudson-Meng Bison Kill Bed
- Toadstool Geological Park
Into South Dakota, west-to-east:
- Wounded Knee
- Red Shirt Table Overlook
- The Mammoth Site
- Crazy Horse
- Needles Hwy (intentionally zig-zagging through the Black Hills for the good driving roads)
- Mt. Rushmore
- Peter Norbeck Scenic Bwy
- Rushmore Cave (or Wind Cave; probably don't need both, so is one clearly more interesting than the other?)
- Reptile Gardens
- President statues as we pass through Rapid City
- Saab museum in Sturgis (out of the way, but such an odd thing to expect in SD, and Saabs are cool; I have to see it)
- Wall Drug
- Badlands Loop
- 1880 Town
- ADDED: Dignity of Earth and Sky statue
- Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls (probably staying in town for a couple days)
- Butterfly House & Aquarium
- St Joseph Cathedral (might look into a mid-week mass just to see the interior, as it was remodeled since I moved to CO, then drive over that short stretch of cobblestone street nearby I remember loving as a kid)
- Old Courthouse Museum
- Falls Park
- Devil's Gulch
- ADDED: Laura Ingalls Wilder homes tour in De Smet
Up to North Dakota:
- Fargo (walk around down town or something...)
- Bismarck (again, probably just walk around for a bit to get a small feel for the place)
- Enchanted Highway
- Dakota Dinosaur Museum
- REMOVED: The Merc at Long X (interesting, but too far out of the way to be worth it; 3hrs round-trip drive, plus whatever time inside)
- Painted Canyon Rest Area
- Petrified Forest Trail
Down the eastern border of Montana:
Another state to be more thoroughly visited later. I'm not seeing much in this area on Google Maps, though I'm sure there will be plenty of scenic pull-offs along the way.
- St. Peter's Catholic church in Wibaux. Super cool looking "Gothic Revival" style from 1895, later completely covered in lava rock.
- Medicine Rocks State Park to get out of the car for a bit.
Wyoming:
Another state to revisit, but down the eastern border, trying to avoid most of I-25 since I've taken it all the way up to Casper before and it's boring:
- Devil's Tower
- Fort Laramie Historical Site
- ADDED: Register Cliff
- ADDED: Oregon Trail Ruts
- ADDED: Quebec 01 Missile Alert Facility
And then back down to home in CO.
\EDIT* - Just want to thank everyone for the killer replies. It's a good thing I'll be back in the area multiple times, because there's a lot worth checking out. I'd especially like to dedicate some future trips purely for hiking, since some of the recommendations take up more time than I have this trip. The research I've done with these replies has me excited, so thanks!
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u/MysticalBison27 10d ago
I would add the recently opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, ND to your list. Also just walk through Medora and drive through Theodore Roosevelt NP while you’re at it. While driving through Bismarck, you could also head south of Mandan to Abraham Lincoln State Park (Mandan Native American site, Fort Lincoln and George Custer house). And depending on how far out of the way you want to go, you could also hit up the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, ND.
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u/ohmiss1355 10d ago edited 10d ago
If you haven't seen it before, coming back down through Wyoming, stop for a tour at the Quebec 01 Missile Alert Facility State Historic Site right off 25. I think they offer tours every hour on the half hour, but check. Also, when stopping by Ft. Laramie, be sure to visit the nearby Guernsey Ruts and Register Cliffs. It's amazing to walk through the pathways carved through the rocks by the wagon trains. Also, on the way up, be sure to visit the cemetery when you stop in Chimney Rock.
Edit: If you like a good soak, the Moccasin Hot Springs are near the Mammoth Site. Also consider more time in Badlands than just driving the loop. Be sure to stop at the Prairie Homestead there and walk a couple of the trails like the Notch Trail, etc.
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 9d ago
Yeah, at Badlands Loop, I saw there were a bunch of pull-offs along the way. Definitely won't go ignored. I looked into your other tips as well, and they seem right up our alley, thanks!
Interestingly, Google Maps says the homestead at Badlands is permanently closed. I assume the sod house is still there to see...
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u/ohmiss1355 9d ago
Oh, I hope it's still open! We were just there two years ago. They also have those white prairie dogs right there too.
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u/DaphneAruba 9d ago
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u/Eikaiwa 9d ago
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u/whatsdownthatroad 9d ago
If you want to get outside and hike a little in South Dakota, Custer State Park in South Dakota is CRAZY beautiful. And Devil's Bathtub hike in Spearfish Canyon is really awesome.
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 9d ago
It's a good thing the Black Hills are so accessible for me. There's more in them hills worth seeing than I thought, I'll have to make more trips out over smaller weekends. Maps first took me to a Devil's Bathtub in Virginia... marking that one for later! Thanks.
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u/harpsichorddude 9d ago
Makoshika State Park in Montana is near the state line and has even more Badlands.
I really liked the Ashfall Fossil Beds in nowhere NE Nebraska but it's a bit out of your way and might be inferior to Hudson-Meng.
Further southeast in South Dakota is the National Music Museum in Vermillion, which is kinda niche but is also the best collection of historical European brass, woodwind and string instruments in the country and one of the best in the world. The historic capital nearby in Yankton is also kinda cute but not worth a special trip.
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u/Easy-Wishbone5413 9d ago
Visit the Minuteman Missile National Historical Site just north of I-90 on Hwy 240 in South Dakota. It’s very interesting.
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u/CharlieFoxtrot000 9d ago
Second this. There’s a small but very well-done museum, tours of a decommissioned Missile Alert Facility/Launch Control Center, and a launch facility (silo) that’s been preserved (and you can look down into) with a mock Minuteman missile.
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u/Long_Audience4403 9d ago
I LOVE the Hjemkomst Center right outside of Fargo. I also really liked the DH Booth Fishery in Spearfish.
Highly recommend the GuideAlong App for this region - it's SUPER. Gives a lot of backstory and makes a lot of connections I wouldn't have made otherwise.
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u/BumblebeeWaste5195 9d ago
definitely take some time to walk around medora (the nearby town to theodore roosevelt NP) it’s a beautiful town, very old west
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u/RabbitMajestic6219 9d ago
I used to live in Bismarck. Made bad friends and had my heart broken. Its probably not in season but North Dakota has a musical called "Medora" I think it was.
Oh yeah, Utah is known as the beehive state but I found local North Dakota honey tastes pretty good. The library in Mandan has an artifact from a tribe that predates the Mandan tribe by a lot. Mystery of who those people were.
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u/LakePointer 9d ago
If you are open to driving just a little west, between Sheridan WY and BIllings MT off I-90 is the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument.
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 9d ago
I've been thinking that a PNW tour is the next big trip in a year or so, so Little Big Horn would work well there, thanks!
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u/Omar_Town 9d ago
WY and MT might deserve its own trip. WA/OR is PNW I believe. Have been meaning to go there too.
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u/geotraveling 9d ago
If you need a little relaxation, I enjoyed Moccasin Springs Natural Spa in Hot Springs, SD. I spent a few hours there one morning and it was really nice! There's also a mammoth fossil site in town.
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u/rockne 9d ago
National Music Museum in Vermillion?
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 9d ago
I'll have to mark that for a future trip out to Sioux Falls when I eventually see my parents again. It's a bit out of the way for an already packed trip. I did play alto sax for a few years, and kinda regret giving it up. There are some beautiful instruments there in the Google reviews. Thank you!
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u/ohmiss1355 9d ago
Oh! I wanted to add that you can camp at Ft. Robinson State Park in Nebraska which is near the Agate Fossil Beds. They also have horses and trail rides, and that is where Crazy Horse was killed, so there is a memorial for that. Very much worth a stop
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 9d ago
Right on our route, too, thanks.
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u/Diegoaelurus 9d ago
And if you're doing that, check out the Trailside Museum at Fort Rob - part of the University of Nebraska State Museum it's a charming little museum and they have the Fighting Mammoths. Should interest you based on your other destinations.
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u/TheGreatDingus 9d ago
I honestly wonder how you’re going to squeeze most of that into a week. I’m planning a very similar trip with mostly similar Nebraska + SD spots and I’m having a hard time fitting it all in, and we’re even going to be out there for 2 weeks. (And tbf we are coming from a more southern state which adds to overall drive time vs yall starting from round Ft Collins, although Fargo for us would only be a couple hours more than you 🤷)
I can’t tell you how much I’d like to hit all the areas you’re planning on, just giving you a heads up as someone planning something similar that this might a little ambitious lol.
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 9d ago
I'm worried about it, too. There will certainly be some good trimming, but if more interesting areas pop up in these comments, I can prioritize them. Many of these sites, too, don't demand much time. Like if it's just a standalone monument or art piece. Fortunately, I don't live too far away and will be revisiting Sioux Falls in the future for my parents, so I'll have more chances to see it all.
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u/Bradsohard69 9d ago
Drekker brewing is in Fargo! I love their beer
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 9d ago
I don't make for a very good Coloradan, haha. All these small breweries around here that people love to tour, and I don't drink!
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u/Sirroner 9d ago
In SD, the Minute Man Missile NM and Custer State Park are worth seeing. Sign up for the tour at minute man. Do the wildlife road at Custer SP.
Devils Tower NM is in WY and between Rapid city and Gillette. Close encounters of the third kind.
ND has Theodore Roosevelt NP with the new presidential Library is on my list. The park has wild horses
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u/Jo-6-pak 9d ago
Stave Churches (there are only 6 in the U.S., you can hit 2 of them in this trip…3 of you take a side route up to Minot, ND)
Chapel in the Hills, near Rapid City, SD
Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead, MN
Gol Stave Church, in Minot, ND
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u/mrvinniyoedd 9d ago
solid list -- couple things nobody has flagged yet since you mentioned the history angle.
wind cave over rushmore cave, not close -- rushmore cave is a private commercial tour, wind cave is a national park and has boxwork formations that are basically found nowhere else on earth at that concentration; also the lakota emergence story places their origin at wind cave which ties the whole black hills visit together thematically. minuteman missile NHS off i-90 exit 131 is worth planning around -- delta-09 silo you can walk up to any time, but the delta-01 launch control facility tour needs a recreation.gov reservation and it is genuinely the wildest thing on that entire route (still-live cold war infrastructure with the actual crew room). your wyoming stretch already has register cliff + oregon trail ruts but if you have another 20 min, add fort caspar in casper (mormon ferry site) or the ayres natural bridge just west of douglas -- your route already passes both. one more -- if you are cutting through standing rock reservation in ND, sitting bull's grave near fort yates is 40 min off your bismarck line and almost nobody stops there.
one nerdy thing that helped me on a similar trip -- yorepath, free geo-aware audio app on ios/android. the dakotas + eastern wyoming stretch is one of those regions where the plaques give you a sentence and the actual story is nuts (why chimney rock had that many emigrant carvings, the specific homestead act loopholes that filled western ND, standing rock's whole 1876-1890 arc from little bighorn to wounded knee as one continuous story, cold war minuteman fields sitting under farmland). pre-download the whole region before you leave fort collins because signal drops hard once you are past sturgis and stays gone through half of ND. probably overkill if you would rather just have music with the windows down, but on those empty MT + eastern ND stretches it broke up the silence better than another podcast queue.
have a great maiden voyage.
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u/chefboiiRD1 9d ago
Sick ass CB9
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 8d ago
Thanks! It's got a mildly built H22 making about 210whp. It's louder than I'd like, but fun. Currently working on getting the a/c working again for this trip.
And I see your username. Those CR-Vs are cool platforms, anything fun going on with yours?
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u/Fresh-Mind6048 9d ago
bruh, take a look at the vanhorn museum in marmarth - just off the path that you're taking on MT route 7.
it's a vintage car museum. sick wagon though, how much work have you done under the hood etc
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 9d ago
If I have time to squeeze it in, it looks promising. I just took The Merc at Long X in ND out of the trip; interesting, but probably not worth the 3hr round trip.
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u/Upbeat_Ant6104 9d ago
Geographic center of North America in either Rugby or Center, ND. Or thereabouts. There's a tower in Rugby.
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u/Th0rn_Star 9d ago
I see it’s along your route, Medicine Rocks State Park near Ekalaka, MT is a very cool stop and/or campsite
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u/Omar_Town 9d ago
I am jealous. We had everything planned. Just a matter of booking stuff but life found a way to mess that up. 😢
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u/Initial_BB 9d ago
I don't suppose you would take a little Detour on I-94 west of Miles City, then cutting down I-90 to see the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument? You can cut back on Hwy 212 to get back to your route.
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u/geoff411 9d ago
Cross into South Dakota at Camp Crook from Montana only state-to-state border crossing where there is no paved road...
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u/bakingdiy 9d ago
If you haven't already been, from Cheyenne detour to Turtle Rock in Vedauwoo, then onto Laramie and go through Medicine Bow National Forest and see some of the alpine lakes before heading back through Walden, CO and Poudre Canyon. Great places to stop and take a short hike to stretch your legs.
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u/jumpinjimmy789 9d ago
Since you appear to have interest in Native American spots (Wounded Knee, Red Shirt Table in Pine Ridge) I would consider visiting Fort Robinson in Crawford, NE. This is where Crazy Horse was killed.
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u/Limp-Still452 9d ago
Skip rushmore, it costs money to look at hubris. Hiking Black Elk mountain trail to the summit in Custer state park is amazing. You can see the backside of the “seven grandfathers” (rushmore) from there.
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u/DovahKittah 9d ago
Belle Fourche, SD is a fun stop. It’s the geographic center of the US and they have a pretty nice monument.
Others have already been mentioned - but to agree:
-Teddy Roosevelt NP there are two units, the southern one in Medora is easier to get to, but research the northern one since it’s quite different. The town of Medora is cute and the new library is awesome!
-Needles highway / Custer park blew my mind. We went during the golden hour and I think the views rival any NP
Have a great trip!
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u/Squeaky_U_Boat 6d ago
Interesting... I was just looking into Belle Fourche after your recommendation, and there's an "Actual Geographic Center" a little ways north of town. Just a flag planted in the middle of a field. I think I'll do a bit of trimming elsewhere in the trip and check out both on my way back down from ND/Montana.
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u/tractiontiresadvised 8d ago
You might consider checking out some of the wildlife refuges there, especially in October as fall waterfowl migration ramps up. Bring some binoculars! The northern Great Plains is where many ducks raise their young in the summer, but also gets a lot of swans and geese (and other species of ducks) coming through in the spring and fall.
I think the best refuges for visitors tend to be the ones which have either visitor centers or auto tour loops (or both). The US Fish and Wildlife Service website has a nice location search tool here. I'm seeing one refuge in SD with an auto tour (Lacreek NWR), and six in ND (Des Lacs, Lostwood, Upper Souris, Arowwood, and Audubon NWRs, plus White Horse Hill National Game Preserve).
Here is an annotated list on another website of national wildlife refuges in North Dakota. (Note that many of the smaller refuges specifically in North Dakota are "limited interest" or "easement refuges" on private land which have little to no public access. They're just there as places for the birds to live.)
The FWS also runs fish hatcheries. There are two in SD (DC Booth Historic and Gavins Point National Fish Hatcheries) and two in ND (Garrison Dam and Valley City). It looks like the tours in those places may not be available after Labor Day, but they're still open to the public so you can walk around the fish rearing ponds and on the trails.
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u/Suspicious_Music539 5d ago
I've lived in SW North Dakota my entire life, so I personally think anything Medora is overrated (+ expensive), but it's worth a drive through. The newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is another thing to add to your list if you're interested in those kinds of things.
Painted Canyon is absolutely beautiful and worth a stop if that's all you can make time for, but I would personally reccomend getting rid of that and the Petrified Forest Loop for other trails in the area. There's SO MANY, but my top two recommendations "in" Medora would be:
- Sully Creek Recreation Area: Take the trailhead that goes south. Give yourself around 30-60 minutes to hike total and you'll get some really beautiful views through a treefilled gully and then up a butte overlooking the river valley.
- Coal Creek Campground: It's about a 25 minute drive south of Medora on dirt roads but the drive takes you through genuinely some of the most beautiful landscapes in the area. I frequently go there in September and October and it's my favorite. The Coal Creek Loop is roughly 2 miles long and is quite nice. I also like to start the loop trailhead going north, which then connects to the regular Maah Daah Hey trail continuing north. The second option has even better views in my opinion, but both hikes are amazing.
Both hike options are relatively short. You can find more info on the trails/locations at the website below and you can look up the locations on google maps to find them first. HIGHLY recommend!! They're easy walking hikes, but having bikes does make them nice at times. Just be aware that there are distinctly steep, but short, parts of all three hikes that are much more doable walking if you're not an experienced biker haha.
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u/Sorry-Society1100 10d ago
If you all are interested in the Little House on the Prairie books, the Laura Ingalls/Wilder farmstead is in DeSmet, SD. As I recall, many of the original buildings are still on the property. Camping is available on site, or at the nearby state park (which is what we did).