Visiting South Dakota’s Bandlands and Black Hills – Off Season

If you’re in mind for some National Parks and you want to escape the crowds, I have the best-kept National Park road trip that you can ever imagine. I’m talking about epic views, plenty to do and see, with nary another soul around for miles, an outdoor adventure lovers paradise and be found in that most underrated of States. South Dakota.

The Bad Lands and Black Hills of South Dakota

When you think about loading up the kids and car and heading out on some road trip or vacation to see some National Parks, you probably think about hoards of unruly people and never-ending lines of cars. A nightmare. Well, it doesn’t have to be like that, I’ve got the perfect place for you.

Visit South Dakota in the late fall. You won’t believe what you will find there, especially in the late fall (October) when everyone else has “run for the hills,” that now those Black Hills are there for the taking.

Here is a list of some of the awesome things we did on our South Dakota Back Hills Road trip.

• Drive through Custer State Park
• Visit Mount Rushmore early in the morning
• Drive the Needles Highway
• Explore and hang out in Rapid City
• Visit the Bad Lands
• Visit Wind Cave National Park
• Go on hikes
• Hike around Sylvan Lake
• Visit all the Welcome Centers you can
• Picnic Areas
• Wildlife Loop Road
• Hot Springs
• Mammoth Dig

Trust me, this is perfect for a long 4-day weekend with the family.

You would be surprised by Rapid City, SD, it’s hip and trendy, and the ladies will love the shopping. It has some great eats and ice cream shops, and plenty of parks for the kids to play around at, it’s like a little paradise nestled in the foot of the Black Hills. You can easily spend a whole day there.

Of course, there are all the major attractions in the Black Hills including the National Parks. Wind Cave National Park is more than just the cave. It has a great Visitor Center, along with some short and easy trails right from the Center that you can do with the whole family.

There is plenty of wildlife to see there as well, some nice driving and beautiful views with plenty of places to stop and either just look around, or go for more hikes.

Don’t skip two awesome drives, the Needles Highway and the Wildlife Loop, these both will take a good part of the day and offer some amazing and scenic views, plenty of places to stop along the way to walk or picnic.  Also, don’t forget to visit the Mammoth Dig sight and swim in Hot Springs in the naturally-fed swimming pool there, amazing!

Also, visiting during the late fall is perfect, it’s still very warm and nice, but all the people are gone. We visited in Late October and the weather was still in the 60-70’s with lots of sunshine and hardly anyone around.