Adventures in Retirement: 2015 - 07 - 11: Day 27 Scenic Destinations - Historic towns and Steam Train and Mount Rushmore

From Rapid City South Dakota

To Hot Springs South Dakota

Distance Traveled: 76 miles

Rockerville

My destination today was back into the Black Hills to Keystone. On the way I made a stop in Rockerville to discover a truly spectacular historic ghost town.

I parked and had a most wonderful walk about taking photos of the now abandoned buildings.

Driving on further west I arrived at Keystone after passing through this picturesque tunnel.

In Keystone, I parked and too walk about the town and in one of the many souvenir shops I bought a “bear claw” for my animal Totem collection.

On my walk I discovered a train station with a “steam train” ride to Hill city. I signed up for the 11:00 am trip. With just a little time left till “all aboard” I found a little park and phoned Mel. We had a chat to catch up on events and then I prepared a lunch for the train trip (salami sandwich and strawberries).

The train is a collection of historic cars, from the steam locomotive to the wooden seated passenger cars.

I loved being able to sit by the wide open windows to look out and see the train stretched out before me as we went around a curve in the tracks, but also the amazing passing scenery.

The trip one way takes about 1 hour at the leisurely slow speed of 5-9 mph. This speed is perfect for looking around and viewing the scenery. I sure took a lot of pictures.

At Hill City there was a 45 minute break for the train staff to take their lunch, and so I found a lovely shady picnic bench to eat my lunch as well.

Then it was time to get back on board the train and enjoy the return trip to Keystone. On this trip I spotted several wildlife sightings. I saw mostly deer, but a muskrat too.

Once the train trip was over it was time to get back to the car (3 hour parking is the free limit) and continue on my sightseeing.

I drove the route past Mount Rushmore. Since I have already visited the sight I thought it would be nice to drive by and view the stone heads from the roadside overlooks. The monumental nature of this artwork is awe inspiring.

I particularly liked the roadside stop where you can see the profile view.

Just a short ways further down the road I stopped for a short walk to see Horse Thief Lake. A lovely boardwalk along the shoreline made for a pleasant walk.

Then I turned onto Needles Highway toward Sylvan Lake. It was enjoyable to see this stretch of the road in the sunshine. Last time I was here driving the Needles with my sister in 2009, it was raining and very overcast.

There is a totally different view to be enjoyed on a clear day!

I stopped at a roadside stop for a short hike to see the spiky spires overlooking the valley below.

I arrived at Custer State Park where I wanted to camp at Sylvan Lake and then climb Hanley Peak in the cool of the morning (a 3 mile climb). However they have this strange policy to only allow campers that have pre-registered. (Most places do both take pre-registrations and have some spots for first come first serve).

So unfortunately that altered my plans and I continued the drive along hwy 89 now south toward Custer and from there continues south through the Black Hills National Park, through Wind Cave National Park and on to Hot Springs.

Along the way I stopped at the now defunct "Buffalo" gas station for this humourous picture.

By the time I arrived in Hot Springs it was late afternoon and I did a quick drive through town to find a suitable place for overnight. There are no nearby camp grounds so I chose a quaint old time motel (Skyline) and settled in for the evening.

I did my laundry and enjoyed the pleasure of a shower, after several days of showerless campsites this is a real pleasure.

Then I used some internet time to catch up with email communications. I also worked on my photo’s downloading and labeling and editing all take up quite a bit of time. For example, just today I took 265 photos.