Travelers arrive today into Rapid City Regional Airport. A complement shuttle is available to our hotel in nearby Rapid City. Traveler who arrive early, or come in the day before, may want to consider local club walks available in Rapid City. Three walking trails and one bicycle route start from hotel start points within a 3-4 mile taxi ride of our hotel. Our first group activity is a welcome meeting this evening after you’ve had dinner on your own.

Deadwood Walk – 6 & 10 km, rated 1B

Following a one hour bus ride west from Rapid City to the historic town of Deadwood, our first activity is a memorable coach tour with a fun local guide. We’ll be entertained with tales of the past, and introduced to Homestake Mine in neighboring Lead, America’s deepest and largest gold mine until it was closed in 2002. The entire town of Deadwood is on the National Historic Register—it’s a city known for the gold rush days of the 1870s, Wild Bill Hickok’s final demise, and the largest historic restoration project in the USA.

The afternoon’s walk connects us with several faces of Deadwood, still a gambling mecca, including the cemetery of Mount Moriah, final resting place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane; atmospheric sections of old town Deadwood; and one of the most unique chocolate shops you’ll ever encounter!

Join us this evening for an atmospheric dinner in one of Deadwood’s fun eateries.

Devils Tower National Monument Walk – 11 km, rated 3C

Devils Tower looms above the surrounding hills like a 1,000-foot tall tree stump, making it difficult to get lost on this outstanding nature Trail. Still sacred to the Lakota Sioux, this geological phenomenon was set aside as our country’s first national monument by President Teddy Roosevelt’s 1906 Antiquities Act. More recently, it was featured in the blockbuster 1977 film, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.

The wildlife and the prairie dog villages, the winding Belle Fourche River, rock climbers drawn by the tower’s hundreds of vertical cracks, the Red Beds Trail, and the stunning spectacle of the Tower itself make this an outstanding, multi-faceted hiking experience!

Upon our return to Deadwood, enjoy exploring town with dinner on your own this evening.

Flume Trail #50 – 5 & 11 km, rated 2C

We make our way today to Keystone, a community that, like many in the area, has its roots in 19th century mining booms. En route, we stop for our walk of the day on the historic Flume Trail. The flume operated until 1885, enabling miners to take over $20 million in gold from the area, and the trail follows the actual flume bed for much of its length.

We also sample a special slice of the Black Hills this afternoon on the Iron Mountain Road, a 17-mile stretch of highway specifically engineered to show off the unique beauty of its enduring granite peaks. After 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, 3 tunnels, and a vintage viewpoint of Mount Rushmore, we arrive at the Wildlife Loop Road of Custer State Park.

The park is home to a herd of about 1300 buffalo. An excellent loop road through the park offers some of the best wildlife view we’ve experienced! In addition to a plethora of buffalo, we typically see wild burros, prairie dogs, pronghorn antelope, wild turkeys, white-tail deer and mule deer.

Keystone offers several eateries to consider for dinner on your own. Walkers with energy to burn may also consider a bonus club walk based here in Keystone, and daylight shouldn’t be a problem in June.

Crazy Horse Memorial Walk – 10 km, rated 3C

The Ziolkowski family has been sculpting this mountain of granite since Korczak Ziolkowski accepted Chief Standing Bear’s invitation to immortalize Chief Crazy Horse in 1948, and the work is likely to continue into this family’s fourth and fifth generations. The memorial worksite is open to the public for this walk only twice each year. There’s nothing like the thrill of standing on the granite arm of Chief Crazy Horse looking up at the far away gaze of his 87 foot tall face!

Nearby Mount Rushmore was the inspiration for Crazy Horse Memorial. We stop here as well to pay homage to four of America’s great presidents—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Our Farewell Dinner takes place tonight back in Keystone at a local restaurant with plenty of old West ambiance.

Too soon our adventure together comes to a close. Following our final breakfast, shuttles return you to your hometown reality via the Rapid City Regional Airport.

Thank you for sharing the history, culture, and scenery of Crazy Horse & the Black Hills of South Dakota with us!

To register, a non-refundable $200 deposit is required to hold your spot. A final payment is due 60 days before departure and is non-refundable once paid. You will receive a prompt email from us a week or two in advance.

An email with critical information on flight arrangements will be sent soon after registration, as well as important steps to take in the months before your trip. Please do not buy your airline tickets until you review the Flight Arrangements email.

Please follow this link to read our full General Tour Conditions.

Please bear in mind that the walks on this Adventure take place at elevations ranging from 2,500 feet above sea level to 6,500 feet above sea level at Crazy Horse Memorial. While these are not extreme elevations, it is important to pursue any concerns you have about elevation with your doctor. As always, travelers are free to opt out of any activities. As is the case with all of our Adventures, it is also important that you prepare for the fun by maintaining a good physical fitness routine.

WAI offers walking adventures all over the planet!

Most of the walks featured on these tours are developed by WAI tour planners in cooperation with local walking guides. These itineraries are the result of extensive on-site planning by WAI staff.

A Volkssport Tour, on the other hand, streamlines this process and focuses more on walks and less on sightseeing. The objective is to feature more walking and offer more volkssport stamps (a record of walks volkswalkers keep in a passport-like walking book), and to keep the price lower.

In the case of Crazy Horse & the Black Hills of South Dakota, however, local club walks are used, yet on the ground planning has also fine-tuned this itinerary to provide an excellent balance of walking, sightseeing, and cultural connections.

This Adventure is therefore a happy blend of the Volkssport and Classic Curated concepts.

Good quality, tourist-class accommodations are the standard for our Adventure. Most accommodations on this tour are selected primarily as a practical base from which to pursue our itinerary. Many, but not all, of our accommodations on this adventure are either single-floor or two-floors, sometimes without elevators. Travelers should be able to carry their luggage up a number of steps to get to a second-floor room if necessary.

The official start and finish point for this Adventure is Rapid City, South Dakota and the nearest airport is Rapid City Regional Airport (airport code RAP). More details about flight arrangements and travel agent contact information will be available after this tour has been finalized.

We recommend that you contact Laura Pfahler, the travel agent we work with, to help book your flight arrangements. In this age of airfare complications and airport uncertainty, using a travel agent is a good investment! More details about flight arrangements and travel agent contact information will be provided by email after you register for the Adventure.  Please do not book your airfare prior to receiving these flight details from us!

Our Approach to Fun but Prudent Travel document identifies and explains Covid-19 mitigation policies and procedures WAI is using as a starting point for our 2022 tours. Because the knowledge base about COVID-19 changes daily, we review these policies and procedures on an ongoing basis, and will, of course, notify travelers of updates as we approach the departure date of your tour.

During this age of COVID-19, WAI evaluates worldwide reports and conditions on an ongoing basis. Please read Our Approach to Fun but Prudent Travel document before registering for the tour. Part of the registration process is affirming the terms of the COVID-19 Travel Waiver.

Participation in this tour requires your assent to these terms.