I bet the title of this blog post really took you by surprise! I know this whole experience was unexpected for me. In addition to having surprisingly tall mountains, South Dakota also has some of the longest cave systems in the world. For both Jewel Cave and Wind Cave you will need to book your tours in advance. We were lucky, one of them had just finished renovating their elevator when we were there.

The internet suggested Custer State Park quite a lot, and I believe rightly so. The park is really big and it seems like there’s a lot to do there. The highest point in South Dakota is higher than you might imagine. Black Elk Peak tops out at 7,242 feet and the trail has an elevation gain of 1500 feet! For my California lungs, it was a bit of a trial.

Woooo geez, sorry that this blog post is so late! Life got pretty busy right after this trip. So my friend and I had planned to go to South Dakota pre-COVID but during the pandemic we had to postpone a few times. I think when you think of South Dakota you don’t think of much being there but I actually found enough to do that we could’ve even spent another day or two.