Exploring Hot Springs, SD: Black Elk Peak, Wind Cave & More

Our third and final week in South Dakota brought us to Hot Springs, a small town that ended up being the perfect finale to our three-week stay in the state. After spending a week in the Badlands and another in Rapid City, we loved keeping up our rhythm of moving just about an hour each week- close enough that travel days stay short, but far enough that each stop gives us a fresh area to explore. Hot Springs was no exception. Our main goal for this week was hiking Black Elk Peak as part of our highpointing adventures this year, but we also spent time in Wind Cave National Park and checked out some of the unique local spots that make this corner of South Dakota so fun to visit. In this post I’ll share everything we did during our Hot Springs week, as well as tips for visiting yourself!

Where to Stay in Hot Springs, South Dakota

We stayed at Angostura Recreation Area, a beautiful South Dakota state park just outside of Hot Springs. The park has multiple campgrounds to choose from, and we found it to be very quiet during the week, though it definitely picked up on the weekends. Since it surrounds a large reservoir, many sites have lovely views of the water, and there are plenty of activities right in the park, including disc golf, a beach, and watersports. It ended up being a great home base for our week here.

If you’re only stopping through for a night, Harvest Hosts can be a great option. We’ve used it often on travel days, and Hot Springs has some fun spots where you can stay while also supporting local businesses. Use our link to find the best prices on membership!

For those who prefer hotels, Hot Springs has a variety of lodging options. Here are a few to consider:

• Springs Lodge & Cafe
• Stay USA Hotel & Suites
• Hot Springs Hills Inn
• Suites at The Red Rock Vacation rentals
• Super 8 by Wyndham Hot Springs
• Baymont by Wyndham Hot Springs
• Econo Lodge Hot Springs South

Day 1: Moving from Rapid City

Monday after work we moved to our final South Dakota campground- Cheyenne Campground in Angostura Recreation, near Hot Springs. This was only about an hour 15 minute drive and was a pretty easy one. We got set up and just walked around the campground for the night, since this was an after work move.

Day 2: The Mammoth Site

Our first fun activity in Hot Springs was visiting The Mammoth Site. The site was discovered during construction in 1974 and is still an active paleontological site. The site focuses around a prehistoric sinkhole where the remains of at least 61 mammoths have been found. A building was built around the site to protect it from conditions and to turn it into a museum. This is definitely a must-do! We really enjoyed it and it made me feel like I was in the lion king elephant graveyard. It was unreal seeing so many mammoth tusks in one place like that.

Day 3: Disc Golf at Angostura

Wednesday we decided to check out the park disc golf course. It was a fun 9 hole course with amazing views of the reservoir. During some holes we nervous about losing our discs though, because we were on high ridges over the water- and it was windy! Our discs survived, though, and it was a good time.

Day 4: Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary

Our Thursday activity was visiting Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. The sanctuary is a nonprofit that was started in 1988 to provide a home for unwanted wild horses. They have thousands of acres of land and have several different herds. Before we even got to the horses we saw a prairie dog town, and not only were the prairie dogs active, but there were also burrowing owls! It was so fun to watch them pop into the prairie dog holes and just cool to see them at all.

We did finally see the horses farther down the road, then visited the gift shop to make a donation and buy a magnet. We would definitely recommend visiting if you’re in the area!

Day 5: Whitney Preserve

Friday we did a hike at Whitney Preserve, which is owned by The Nature Conservancy. Honestly, you could skip this one, it wasn’t very exciting. We didn’t see any exciting plants and it wasn’t as good of botanizing as I thought it would be. The funniest part, though, was when I went to sign the guest log and the last person to sign it was Josh’s contact from Wheaton college!

Day 6: Drive through Wind Cave National Park, Black Elk Peak, Custer State Park, and Crazy Horse Memorial

Our main goal for Day 6 was to summit South Dakota’s highest peak- Black Elk Peak in Custer State Park. But first, we encountered a bit of a traffic jam driving through Wind Cave National Park.

I really struggled on our hike, but I made it and the views from the top of South Dakota were pretty incredible! We’ve been on a kick of visiting state high points this year, but this was our first big hike to one.

@roamingnelsons

Because I promise I don’t only go to flat high points! #hiking #southdakota #highpoint

♬ original sound – MOTORSPORT FILES

After our hike, we stopped for lunch at one of the park stores. The Sturgis Rally was this weekend, and there was a ride through Custer, so there were just motorcycles eeeeeverywhere. It definitely added to the unique experience. After we ate, we tried to drive the famous Needles Highway, but were met by a cop at the first tunnel telling us it was closed. It turned out there were several motorcycle accidents that day and plenty more that week. This also meant having to change up our route in and around the park, so next we headed over to check out the Crazy Horse Memorial.

The Crazy Horse Memorial was yet another spot just swimming with bikers. It’s definitely overpriced, but I’m glad we at least saw it. There’s also different museum rooms, some kind of hidden, and it just kept going more than we expected. If you’re going to visit, we’d recommend trying to line up your visit with one of the different performances they regularly have so you get more out of your admission.

Then we headed back to a different part of Custer State Park to drive the Wildlife Loop Road. We saw bison, pronghorns, burros, and lots of dumb people standing in the middle of the road to pet the burros. That was extremely frustrating.

Our last stop in Custer State Park was the Mount Coolidge Fire Tower. There was a terrifying gravel mountain road going up, then we were able to visit the outside of the 1930s CCC stone fire tower.

Day 7: Wind Cave Tour

In the morning of our last day we explored more of Angostura outside of our campground area. We drove around to see everything and then had a surprisingly good lunch at the grill at the beach. As we were pulling out of that area, we ran into a guy who’s boat trailer had unhitched and were able to help him. We’ve now used our bottle jacks more helping other people than for ourselves- RVers to the rescue!

Our main activity of the day was back at Wind Cave National Park for an actual cave tour. We checked out the visitor center first, then drove around a little to look for wildlife. We were going to go up to the fire tower too, but we didn’t realize how much of the way you had to hike vs. drive and we didn’t have time for it. The tour itself was good- we liked our ranger, and while a lot of it was pretty basic (we visit a lot of caves), I was in awe of the really unique boxwork formations. Josh did not like the boxwork, though, they definitely triggered some trypophobia for him.

After our tour we stopped in town for groceries and then I had my online book club meeting. The next day we packed up and headed out for a long drive between Hot Springs and Utah- with some added stops in between to check off new states.

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