By Lani Gering

We are taking a little bit different route in this month’s Road Trip column. Many of you longtime readers will remember when we stepped out of the DMV box and wrote about treks to the Grand Canyon out west and St. Thomas, St. John and Jost Van Dyke in the Virgin Islands. When my cousin, Annie – who is more like a sister – and I were talking about where we were go to taking our “Girls Trip” this year while I was going to be headed home to southeastern Wyoming last month, she suggested that we revisit the place we went to on our first trip in 1976 – Keystone, South Dakota. If you do the math, that was fifty, 5-0, half a century ago! That sort of blew us away. We are a pair of pretty spry 73 year-olds in any case!

For those of you who have had the opportunity to visit the Black Hills, you know that they are about much more than just Mount Rushmore and the still-in-progress carving of Crazy Horse. While both of these are amazing landmarks and major attractions in the Hills and we spent a fair amount of time at both landmarks and took lots of pics, we spent the majority of this trek enjoying the scenery and reminiscing about our maiden voyage.

Our adventure began when I boarded the first non-stop Frontier Flight of the day from National Airport to Denver International. This flight is a little over 4 hours and being Frontier, not a lot of frills but the price is right. Annie picked me up at the arrivals gate at 9:30 am and we headed straight for the Hills. It is a little over 5-hour drive (the speed limits are much higher out west and being able to go 80 mph legally cuts down drivetime significantly) through eastern Wyoming right through our home town. We did take a lunch break to meet my sister and family at Lira’s Restaurant – our favorite Mexican restaurant in the small town of Lingle, WY. If you decide to take this same route – be sure to stop in for a taco, a smothered enchilada and a margarita of course! You won’t be disappointed.

The drive was pretty uneventful and if you are a fan of wide-open spaces and antelope, you will love it. Once we got into South Dakota, the landscape changed and we were in the Hills.

We made a stop at the Crazy Horse Memorial and Tourist Center on the way to our destination. This massive sculpture of the Oglala Lakota warrior has been in the making for 78 years. Funding, weather and challenging geology have all played a part in this timeline. Unlike Rushmore, it is hard to get a good photograph without a good zoom lens or taking the bus to the base ($5) or a special van tour up to the top of the monument ($125). We didn’t have time to do either. The museum is well worth the stop as well.

We arrived at our destination – Sylvan Lake Lodge Resort (custerresorts.com) located in the northwestern corner of Custer State Park – in good time. I had reserved one of the small cabins – the Burro – with a view of the lake as opposed to a room in the lodge. You can’t go wrong either way. Annie’s Uncle Nick managed the lodge and resort for several years in the 60’s and we had stayed on the property when we were kids. While it remains “rustic”, it isn’t nearly the same as it was “back in the day”. Lots of upticks and remodels over these 50 years but it still feels like a comfortable mountain getaway.

We settled in to the “Burro”, which was located a short drive from the Lodge but adjacent to the lake and the General Store. It’s small one room cabin with a queen-sized bed and all of the comforts of home for the most part – microwave, stove top, sink, fridge, coffee maker, kitchen ware, etc. – and a small bathroom with a shower. It was perfect!

Annie had made dinner reservations at the Lodge Restaurant that evening so we made our way there early enough to enjoy a cocktail on the stone veranda before we took our place in the dining room. Our meals were exceptional and we both had leftovers that we planned to take back to my sister’s farm on Sunday but you guessed it, we promptly left them in the fridge when checked out. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner – all with great menus. Dinner isn’t cheap but it was well worth it as far as we were concerned.

Our big day was Saturday! We woke up to clouds and rain but that didn’t deter us from making the drive through the park on the famous 14 mile, winding Needles Highway on the way to the Faces and Keystone. We must have been living right, because the rain stopped, the sun came out in all its glory and the sky turned blue about half way through the drive. These pictures don’t do the scenery on this drive justice but you can get an idea of the massive rock structure by the narrow one-way tunnel photo on these pages.

We arrived at Mount Rushmore in good time and it is just as impressive now as it was 50 years ago. Lots of great photo opportunities here. We toured the visitors center and did a bit of people watching while we discussed our impending lunch in Keystone.

Fun Fact: Unlike Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore was finished in 14 years and Annie’s Uncle Nick was the youngest worker hired and the very last surviving crew member at the time of his death at 98 in 2019.

I failed to mention earlier that we were on our adventure just as the annual biker conclave in Sturgis was winding down so there were lots of Harleys and other death traps (my Dad’s term) everywhere we went but school had already started so not a ton of families. Everywhere had special parking areas for the bikes so that make for plenty of space for vehicles. Parking was never a problem. Kinda nice for a weekend!

On to Keystone and the Ruby House and Red Garter Saloon for lunch. It was one of the places we had a great time at in 1976! Not enough space to fill you in on the antics of our first adventure! Keystone has obviously changed but I still got the same vibe from it that I did a half century ago. Annie, whose mother’s family grew up here and she spent a good amount of time as a kid, was a bit disappointed in the town. In any case, we had a fun lunch and did some people/biker watching along with a bit of shopping and ended our stop with a chair lift ride up a mountain where we had a glass of wine on a covered patio with a view of Rushmore through the rain that had circled back around. This was one of the highlights of our trip.

I had made reservations for us at the Blue Bell Lodge and Resort’s Old Fashioned Hayride & Chuckwagon Dinner, located back in the park and 20 miles of winding road away. Despite the rain and winding roads, we arrived early and got all squared away for this next adventure.

The weather sort of cleared up when we arrived! Our guide and entertainment committee, Cowboy Keith (CK), gathered us up and dispersed our cowboy hats and bandanas (a requirement of the adventure) and we climbed on the wagon. We had a great group and I sat front and center with CK since I was doing the R&D for this column. He narrated our ride and played his guitar and harmonica and instructed us to sing along. You know I was on board for this part! We didn’t see much wildlife besides this lone bison who has been excommunicated from the herd by a more dominant bull. Kinda sad when you think about it but park officials take care of him.

The rain decided to make a return just as we were getting ready to eat but the professionals moved the eats and us under cover in the pavilion that was constructed just for times like these. No one missed a beat! The meal was great as was Cowboy Keith’s performance!

We took a short cut back to the Blue Belle and headed back to our cabin on Sylvan Lake. We just relaxed on our little front porch and talked about the “good old days” and the drive back to Wyoming the next day.

We got all squared away and checked out right at 10 am so we could catch breakfast/brunch at Calamity Jane’s in Custer and do a little shopping – I was looking for an Indian beaded belt to no avail. Much like Keystone only on a bigger scale, the historic downtown is a very cool place.

Our last stop on the adventure was Jewel Cave located between Custer and Newcastle, Wyoming. Our timing was off so we didn’t get to tour the cave but we did walk some of the trails and enjoyed the views. 

We arrived at the farm in good shape and Annie spent the night before heading back to Colorado! I am so happy we made this trip! If you are considering going, I am happy to give you all a tip or two. Office@oldtowncrier.com.