Alice and I woke up this morning feeling a little restless – so we figured it must be getting time for another road trip.   Coming in to the Black Hills, we had heard about a little town located 60 miles south of Hart Ranch… named “Hot Springs, SD”.   Sounded like a good destination…

We currently are parked at Hart Ranch RV Park, about 15 miles from Mount Rushmore… and right at the base of the Black Hills.   Beautiful country!   The Black Hills are actually a small, older Mountain Range, with mountains ranging from 5,000 – 7,000 feet in height.   Large rock Outcroppings, Ponderosa pines, Spruces, Aspens… all characterize the Black Hills.   And the roads are excellent.

As a young married couple 40 years ago, we used to ‘road trip’ from Bossier City, Louisiana to areas around Hot Springs, Arkansas – another beautiful part of the country.   So it was natural that when we first arrived here in the Black Hills Region, and we spotted ‘another’ Hot Springs on the local map… that we flag it for an eventual ‘Road Trip Day’.

Here’s a map with Hot Springs, SD shown:   (Click on Map to expand)

To get the day started, Alice prepared a nice breakfast for us, to get us going, and then a picnic lunch to take along… and then it was time to hit the road.   We drove over excellent South Dakota roads, and beautiful plains & prairie land… and arrived at our destination ‘Hot Springs’ about an hour and a half later.   After a nice chat with a local representative of the US Forest Service (office located in Hot Springs) we headed to a location south of town, as recommended by the Forest Service Ranger… a ‘locals’ place, small park, with waterfalls and a swimming Hole.   It was a beautiful place, well hidden & protected, and surprisingly lush on the dry prairies of South Dakota.

Here are some pictures we took of ‘the locals’ place… “Cascade Falls”…located on Hwy 71 a few miles south of Hot Springs, SD.   Be sure to click on pictures to enlarge… Enjoy!

The entrance into Cascade Falls Park, off South Dakota Hwy 71.

The “Swimming Hole”… This pictures does not do justice, but the water is crystal clear.

And the water, being mountain and spring fed, is very cold…

Note the water flowing in from the stream on the right…

All over South Dakota, we are seeing fields of wildflowers… “Brown-eyed Susan’s” in this case.

A little later on, we went upstream to another part of the Park for a picnic lunch.

And found this Pavilion over the stream bed.   Note the clear water… about 18 inches deep.

After a great lunch, and driving back to the town of Hot Springs, we found a beautiful small town, complete with  small river and walking trail.   We walked!

The “Freedom Trail”, located in Centennial Park, Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Hard to believe, but this is right next to the High School Athletics Field… downtown Hot Springs.

This walk completed our day… and we took a nice slow drive back home, traveling North on US Hwy 385.   However, we weren’t quite through yet…  Along the way on Hwy 385… we encountered a “Bull Buffalo” that decided it wanted to race us to see who could cross the highway first… Open Range here.   We ‘let’ the Bull win…. Then we continued our trip home thru Custer, SD, then thru Mount Rushmore and Keystone, before reaching our home in Hart Ranch.   Glad it was an old Bull.

And that ain’t no Bull!

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