Begin your trip in Vermillion, seven miles west of where Highway 50 intersects Interstate 29. Drum up some fun at the world-class National Music Museum on the campus of the University of South Dakota, where more than 15,000 rare and antique instruments are on display. Just west of Vermillion, visit the Missouri River town of Yankton – the first capital of Dakota Territory. Yankton is home to Lewis and Clark Recreation Area, one of the state’s best resources for water sports and camping. Farther west is the tiny town of Tabor, the site of the annual Czech Days each June. Continue along Highways 50 and 18 to Fort Randall Dam, the Fort Randall Casino on the Yankton Sioux Tribe Reservation and then to Winner. Stay the night in Winner.
Begin your trip in Vermillion, seven miles west of where Highway 50 intersects Interstate 29. Drum up some fun at the world-class National Music Museum on the campus of the University of South Dakota, where more than 15,000 rare and antique instruments are on display. Just west of Vermillion, visit the Missouri River town of Yankton – the first capital of Dakota Territory. Yankton is home to Lewis and Clark Recreation Area, one of the state’s best resources for water sports and camping. Farther west is the tiny town of Tabor, the site of the annual Czech Days each June. Continue along Highways 50 and 18 to Fort Randall Dam, the Fort Randall Casino on the Yankton Sioux Tribe Reservation and then to Winner. Stay the night in Winner.
Make a stop at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in Mission to visit the Sinte Gleska University. Travel south to Saint Francis to experience the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum, which showcases a nice display of Native American art. Farther west is the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the largest of South Dakota’s nine reservations. Both the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations hold several powwows and fairs throughout the summer. One of the best-known sites on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the Wounded Knee Memorial, lies just north of Highway 18. West of Pine Ridge is the Red Cloud Indian School and Heritage Center, where a summer art show showcases Native American fine art from around the country. Stay the night at Prairie Wind Casino or in Hot Springs.
Stick around in Hot Springs for the day and visit The Mammoth Site, where excavation continues on the largest collection of mammoth fossils in the Western Hemisphere. Next, check out the huge natural warm-water swimming pool, a wild horse sanctuary and Wind Cave National Park – one of the longest cave systems in the world, located north of Hot Springs on Highway 87.
