Destination:
South Dakota

Deadwood

Deadwood grew into a mythical Wild West town in the 1800s, when gold was discovered in the Black Hills. It quickly became home to a colourful cast of prospectors, gunslingers and gamblers. Today, the brick-paved streets, frontier architecture and turn-of-the-century streetlamps have been carefully restored. The entire town has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Visitors can relax in a historic hotel on Main Street, have a drink at the local saloon, try their luck at the casino, pan for gold at the Broken Boot Mine and climb to the Mount Moriah Cemetery to visit the graves of notorious Old West legends like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane and enjoy a breathtaking view of the hills. Deadwood's notorious reputation inspired the hit television series Deadwood, which takes place during the town's early rough and tumble days.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is literally South Dakota's biggest attraction, covering 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km2)and drawing over two million visitors annually. It was sculpted by Gutzon Borglum between 1927 and 1941, along with 400 workers, creating 60 foot (18m) carvings of US Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln to represent the first 150 years of American history. The entire project cost under one million dollars and, somewhat remarkably given the danger of the work, no-one died during its completion. The sculpture is controversial among native Americans as a previous treaty had granted the land and mountain, known as Six Fathers, to the Lakota tribe.

Badlands National Park

The Lakota - the Native American tribe that was led for many years by Chief Sitting Bull - gave this area of South Dakota the name "mako sica", which translates to "land bad". They weren't exaggerating, and modern-day visitors to Badlands National Park should brace themselves for an unsettling, and truly otherworldly, terrestrial experience. The landscape, drenched and wind-blasted for millennia, has been formed into a series of sharp ridges, steep-walled canyons, gullies, pyramids and buttes; with the exposed rock often appearing in beautiful bands of colour, from deep purple, through vermilion, to orange and gold. Visitors to Badlands National Park will find plenty of well-signed hiking trails, and first-class camping facilities. Whatever you do, don't forget to pack your camera.