Budget Slow Travel

By Patrick Robertson

Every fall we take a road trip in our Porsche 911S. We prefer the US as they have many more roads than we do and the quality of their roads are so much better. They even pave their forestry roads! And, they have a website that lists their rated National Scenic Byways. If you are looking for great drives just go to the website and pick one. We have been on many of the Scenic Byways.

I have wanted to go to and see Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills of South Dakota for quite some time. This year we finally did it.

The drive is 3,000 km round trip from the East Kootenay. We drove over to Alberta and took the back roads from Crowsnest Pass to the US Interstate 5 at Shelby, Montana crossing at Del Bonita, Alberta. There were no cars in front of us the entire way, so I was able to drive the Porsche as it is meant to be driven. If you have not driven the US I-5 from Shelby to Butte, Mt it is an incredibly scenic drive

The drive from Butte, MT to Custer, SD is just over 900 km on the fast Interstate 90. An hour out of Custer we dropped down onto a secondary road that took us right into Custer.

We lucked out on accommodations. We did a home exchange with a couple that had a restored hotel on main street that is now a five-bedroom private residence called the Kleemann House. To say it was fabulous is an understatement. I have never seen such a magnificent sympathetic restoration. You can see pictures on my blog. Custer is a wonderful small town with lots of great restaurants and bars.

Custer is on the edge of the Custer State Park, the second largest state park in the US. It runs a herd of 1,000 bison with a wildlife loop road that meanders through the park with bison crossing the road right in front of you. The admission is $20 that is good for seven days, so do it first.

Mount Rushmore is only a 30-minute drive from Custer. Admission is free but car parking is $5 for seniors. The Needles, Iron Mountain, Spearfish and the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byways are all driver dream highways in the Black Hills surrounding Mount Rushmore. We were lucky and there was never anybody in front of us so we got to enjoy the scenic drives to the maximum.

North of Rushmore is Deadwood and Sturgis. Deadwood is a lively tourist town. The main strip is full of shops, restaurants, bars and hotels with gambling.

I was in a re-enactment of the murder of Wild Bill Hickcock that is held three-times a day in the saloon where he was murdered. They also have an older but interesting museum that I visited. Sturgis is not worth going to except perhaps during the bike rally with 500,000 other people in August. Outside of that it is just a small nondescript town with nothing of interest.

South of Custer is the town of Hot Springs where the river is thermally heated and there is a wonderful hot springs facility that we visited for an afternoon. Again, the drive down was amazing, with no one in front of us. The town buildings are all made of red sandstone and are built in the Victorian Romanesque style with arcades, arches, and heavy ornamentation making the town quite stunning to see.

Mid-September is a great time to visit the South Dakota Black Hills. Most tourist places close October 1, including most of the restaurants. I cannot imagine how busy it is there in the summer as there are literally hundreds of campgrounds that were all closed for the season when we were there.

The hotels and motels were still full with travelling seniors so it is important to line up your accommodations before you get there.

I cannot say enough about the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is easy to see why this is sacred land of the Lakota Sioux. The geography and terrain is beautiful and breathtaking in many cases. If you haven’t been there, make sure you put in on your list. I am glad that we finally made it there.

Photos by Patrick Robertson

– Patrick Robertson is a travel writer and long-time resident of Fernie. He is an expert in planning independent travel and finding budget travel deals. Go to his website for more information and pictures of this trip to Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta (pictured above).

Read more travel articles like this HERE. Like him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/budgetslowtravel for travel tips.

Article Share