Rapid City, South Dakota

We were very excited to have our good friends from Boise join us in Rapid City this year. There is a surprising amount of outdoor sights and activities in this area of the country and we had a great time sharing those with our friends. We started off with a visit to the historic towns of Deadwood and Sturgis. Deadwood has an interesting history as an old west outlaw and mining town. We decided to drive the Spearfish canyon for our route to Sturgis. On the way to the canyon, we drove through Lead, which is the sight of the Homestake mine. This mine is the largest and deepest gold mine in North America. The mine operated up until 2001 and has shafts that go as deep as 8000 feet below the surface. They now use the mine as a research facility to run experiments neutrinos and dark matter material. I was geeking out the entire time we were there. Sturgis is just ramping up for their rally, so the town was relatively quiet. Our next day was spent at the Minuteman missile site and museum and The Badlands National Park with the obligatory stop at Wall Drug. The weather failed to cooperate, but we dodge the thunderstorms to see the missile sites and some of the amazing landscapes in The Badlands. Our friends were interested in doing a hike, so we decided to hike up to the highest peak east of the Rockies. Black Elk peak is located at 7240 feet and gives views of 4 different states on a clear day. We wrapped up our visit with a stop at Bear Country, Mount Rushmore, Needles highway and a tour of Jewel Cave National Monument.