A book packed with info on attractions, restaurants & lodging, plus a little history 

Black Hills: A Guide to South Dakota's

Classic American Frontier

The Black Hills of South Dakota captures the spirit of the American frontier. Once gold-mining territory, today the Black Hills offers striking natural beauty, abundant wildlife and many exciting attractions. In this independent guide, learn about attractions in the Black Hills, dining and shopping in the cities, and touring the Badlands' expansive, odd landscape. Order the book here!

From the iconic Mount Rushmore to the incomparable Wall Drug, use this guide to discover what the Black Hills and Badlands have to offer. See more about the book at the publisher's Web site, Tourist Town Guides.

Getting there is half the fun

 Forested drives between attraction have plenty of pull-offs for easy access to nature in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Use the guide to plan your days to the dozens of towns, state and national parks and other destinations.

 

 Pactola Reservoir, 11 miles north of Hill City, is a beautiful lake and surrounding forest in the central Black Hills

Take a peek inside the book for a look at the table of contents, the index and some of the content at  Amazon.com.

 

 

 

Bring your guide book along to better enjoy your Black Hills experience!

 As you travel through the expansive Black Hills region, have your guidebook along as you arrive at each region or city in the 125-mile-long and and 65-mile-wide natural wonder. 

The book, arranged by town and region, is filled with hundreds of independent “mini reviews” of attractions, restaurants and accommodations in each city, state park and national park along the way. No one paid to be in the book in any way, so there's no fluffy advertising-like language. Just factual, “guy at the burger counter” first-hand information from the author, who has visited the locations many times over the years.

You'll also get a few paragraphs of history for each region to give you a better sense of where you are, and what you're seeing. For example, the beautiful, expansive lake Pactola Reservoir was created by a dam on Rapid Creek in the 1950s at the former town of Pactola, which now is at the bottom of the lake.

Use your guide to get the most out of visits to historic Western towns including Spearfish, Lead and Deadwood in the northern Hills. Read short entries to guide you to shopping and many restaurants at the state's second largest town, Rapid City, or other central Hills towns of Hill City and Keystone. Explore southern towns of Hot Springs and discover why it has that name, and stroll through Custer, perched at the edge of the 71,000-acre Custer State Park.

There are 1.2 million acres of heavily wooded and rugged mountains, and vast expanses of prairie grasses in the Black Hills. There are a few smaller tourist caves to visit, but also two famous large caves: Jewel Cave National Monument is the second largest cave system in the world, more than 140 miles of passages mapped so far. And nearby is the famous Wind Cave National Park, the world's third largest and one of the oldest caves, with 127 miles of passages mapped so far. Both have easy, moderate and intense tours available.

Off to the east, about 50 miles from Rapid City, is the famous Wall Drug, at the edge of Badlands National Park, 244,000 more acres of other-worldly eroded buttes and spires, all open to hiking and exploration. There's lots of wildlife to be seen here, including buffalo, bighorn sheep, endangered black-footed ferrets and fox roaming one of the largest protected mixed-grass prairies in the United States – more than 64,000 acres.

See wildlife throughout the Black Hills National Forest, too, with buffalo, deer, elk, mountain goats, burros and other animals sharing their home with more than 100 miles of scenic byways. Grab your guide and head  out for day trips to each region of the hills, and save a day for Wall Drug and the Badlands.

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