The Ingles Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota was the final stop on our epic Dakotas trip. We had already visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, Devils Tower in Wyoming, and The Great Eight in western South Dakota. Our family has enjoyed the Little House series over the last couple of years. Lillian has been such a fan of the series that her grandma made her a pioneer girl dress and she wore it for a presentation she put together on Laura Ingalls Wilder during second grade. This was a highly anticipated stop on our trip for Lillian. Did it live up to her expectations?

The western side of South Dakota has done a great job bundling their attractions into a check list to co-brand one another and work together. They titled this effort The Great 8. In fact, they even mailed us a Great 8 bumper sticker along with our visitors guide. This made it feel more like a challenge to see all eight destinations. Challenge accepted. 

Black Hills Trailside Park Resort in Hill City was our basecamp for visiting the Black Hills in South Dakota. The campground, or resort, as campgrounds are frequently being re-titled, was situated between a mountain stream and a rails to trails biking/walking path. Within Hill City, the location provided easy access to many desirable attractions within the Black Hills. So, what was the good, and not so good, of Cricket Camping at Black Hills Trailside Park Resort?

We started our epic Great Plains tour at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. After camping two nights at TRNP's Cottonwood Campground, we hitched up and headed 232 miles southwest to see the first of four National Monuments of our trip, Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. On this drive, we started noticing that we were practically alone.  The landscape had gently rolling hills with barely any evidence that people lived in the area.