My pleasure. I feel a little bad directing more tourists there.

Back in the 80s my mom put a spearfish South Dakota bumper sticker on the car (we lived in Indiana at the time).

My grandpa told her to take it off. We didn’t want to advertise what a cool place it was and ruin it with hordes of tourists. :)

Just don’t go in… august, or whenever the national biker rally is (should be easy to Google). That’s when things get nuts and crowded. Even cheap shitty hotels get sold out then.

I can’t vouch for the restaurants in deadwood (though I remember there being one or two good ones), but I enjoy the restaurants in spearfish. Good local taco place. Good local pizza place. Usually there’s a good Italian place, though those seem to rotate. Good place down by the creek next to the rec center. Reasonably good sushi place. Couple of breweries in town on the main strip.

Strangely, I’ve never been there. Might have to take my kids next year and check it out. Thanks!

Actually I have family in that area and I’ve been there multiple times, and I think the commenter was being a bit harsh. I don’t remember too much maga crap. I mean, not any more than any other small town in America, and maybe less, because it really is a tourist friendly area.

I think you can emphasize the bad in any area if you want to. For example: I was just in Seattle and enjoyed it. But if I wanted to describe it as a shitty shore town city with a tourist trap market, a homeless problem, and trash everywhere because all the hippy dippies are so in love with recycling there’s no trash cans….

I wouldn’t be lying. But… it’s not a good representation (for the record had a really good time in Seattle).

Black hills South Dakota have lots of things to do. The hotel built by Seth bullock is still standing.

There are lots of craft breweries and… decent restaurants can be found.

The politics aren’t too in your face.

Spearfish canyon is a beautiful drive. Rough lock falls is a beautiful hike. Mount Rushmore is worth seeing once. Sylvan lake is beautiful too.

There’s honestly a lot to see and do, and in Spearfish right down the road they’ve actually got a college town vibe with sensory deprivation tanks and multiple coffee shops and a good walkable vibe. Id say go for it. If you’re not happy with this advice I’ll refund all the money you paid for it.

Yeah! And that woman I know who had a baby last month is on target to have 12 more by end of 2023! :)

Just for an interesting conversation… you notice how novels have ballooned in size since typewriters went away? I feel like tracing the Harry Potter books is an illustration of this. Something like 200 pages for the first one in the early 90s to 800 by the end. (Too lazy to actually look up page counts).