STW Hop 7: Spearfish SD to Medora ND

Posted by Sparky on September 8, 2017

STW2 Hop 7

212 miles via US 85 and I-94. Cumulative tow miles: 1149. Truck miles: 316. Cumulative truck miles: 1578.

This was a straight shot north through some very desolate landscape. If it wasn’t for one construction site where we were stopped for a minute, we would have made the trip non-stop.

The purpose of the hop was to get North Dakota on our map. I regard ND as “the state I am least likely to revisit” so it was important to get here once.

We were in SD for a full week and we really enjoyed our time there. It is a beautiful state. Our last two nights were at the Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort in Spearfish. It is a spectacular RV campground – huge, flat pull-through sites with concrete pads, a beautiful pool, two huge dog parks, tennis courts, a well-stocked camp store. We liked everything about this campground. We would most definitely return.

Our free day in Spearfish was planned for a day trip to Deadwood and Lead, two wild west towns just south of Spearfish. It turned into a longer road trip than originally planned when Jett needed to refill a prescription at the only CVS in the area – 40 miles away in Rapid City. But we combined that with a trip to Walmart and Petco to get some dog food and coffee, plus we came back on US 85 through some very pretty Black Hills scenery.

We loved Deadwood. It is filled with some great restaurants and old-fashioned casinos. We dined at Mavericks Steak House and then went downstairs to the Gold Dust Casino. Both were excellent choices. I had a ribs and pulled pork combo that was excellent, accompanied by a very tasty tequila chicken soup. Jett had a sirloin steak which she also rated “excellent.”

Because we dined at Mavericks we were given $5 credit each for Gold Dust. I lost $11 but Jett parlayed her $5 credit into a $120 win.

Grass at sunset

She wants to return to Deadwood. That would be fine with me.

We also stopped in Sturgis, ground zero for Harley-Davidson owners. We just had to stop at the HD franchise there and get a pin.

If we had had more time we would have visited both Lead and the Mt Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, where the graves of both Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are located. Just another reason to come back to the area.