Movin' On: The Falls and The Wall Drug

(This is part 3 of the Black Hills vacation series. If you'd like to start at the beginning, click here.)

So much for that "good night's sleep" idea. With all the bedbug drama last night, I didn't get much sleep. When you think about little bugs crawling in your bed, do you not get itchy all over your body? It doesn't matter at all if the little vermin are actually present. I was itchy and wide awake. But hey, lack of sleep is par for the course when sleeping in a hotel room with 5 boys, right? After a delicious breakfast and plenty of coffee, we’re splitting this joint and heading for The Falls Park. Pack it all up!

The Falls Park was a really fun place to climb for all the kids. Nothing is roped off, so keep an eye and a hand on the little guys. My 8 year old decided to cross the top of the falls; when I noticed him precariously perched at the top I nearly fainted. Common sense isn’t his strong suit, but he sure is a good climber!

After a morning at The Falls Park, here we are stacked back in the van like sardines, sailing down the highway, crossing the great state of South Dakota. Booooorrrrring. The most exciting vision you will encounter is windmills generating power. You’ll have miles and miles of straight highway to ponder how those futuristic behemoths work, and why they don’t look anything like a traditional windmill. Yawn. Oh, and then you might just lose cell coverage all together. Apparently our cell service provider, Virgin Mobile, doesn’t give a hoot about the great state of South Dakota. The Heart of America! 

After that long and dusty road, Wall Drug is a welcome sight. What a tourist mecca! We walked around for hours, found and discarded several possible souvenirs, and lost a couple kids more than once. Feeling anxious to get to our cabin in Hill City, we split the Wall Drug without any souvenirs, but with a plan that we’d come back on the way home. Took a turn through Rapid City, and made it to the cabin by dark.  

The cabin resort we stayed in was more odd and outlandish than a National Lampoon's vacation morphed with the Sturgis Bike Rally. Come to think of it, that's exactly what it was! The cabin was tiny - about 800 sq ft, and the whole floor tilted to one side. Luckily the creek was a good 100 yards away, or I'd  have feared the whole shebang would slide right down the hill. And there was a lovely white horse wandering freely on the grounds. The owner looked like a typical Harley rider with the long gray ponytail and his chopper parked next to the collection of rusty saw blades. Talk about character! 

I couldn't wait to see how we'd all sleep in this shack. The only saving grace was the two bedrooms, and the blow-up air mattress I brought along (just in case) the sleeper sofa wasn't usable. (It wasn't.) Here's a tip about air mattresses:  buy a $20 foam topper and it makes the mattress wildly more comfortable. Just let the foam air out for a few days before your trip, because they smell nasty out of the box.

If you are looking for a cheap, bare-bones cabin, clean but no frills, a step up from camping, at a great location in Hill City, check out this resort. But if you keep reading this series, you might yet change your mind.

Click here to continue to part 4.