Roosevelt Inn
RESERVATIONS
1-800-257-8923
RESERVATIONS
1-800-257-8923
Bus and Rail Service to the Black Hills
If you don't drive or fly to the Black Hills, your options are somewhat limited. Rail and bus services seem geared primarily for those who like a challenge.Amtrak has only three stations within 300 miles of the Black Hills and none are in the state of South Dakota. The stations are:
Fort Morgan, Colorado, about 265 miles southwest,
Stanley, North Dakota, 297 miles northeast, and
McCook, Nebraska, 299 miles southeast
So if you ride the rails to any of these stations, you'll have to rent a car and drive almost six hours to get here. If that isn't too off-putting, you
can
get schedules and other details by logging onto Amtrak's
website. http://www.amtrak.comBus service is better but does require a little care. You can find schedules and make bookings at http://www.greyhound.com or http://www.jeffersonlines.com or
http://powderriverbuslines.com.
We tried to book a sample journey from Minneapolis to Rapid City on the Greyhound site and the result wasn't pretty. Greyhound claimed the trip was 1,024 miles and would take 22 hours. When we checked the route we found out why. The bus went from Minneapolis to Ames, Iowa, then onto Des Moines, Omaha, Sioux City, Sioux Falls and thence across South Dakota. We're not sure why Greyhound needed to make a 424-mile circle around Iowa but we've been to Iowa and we can tell you that after a while one corn field looks pretty much like the next. On the other hand, there's a stop at Boondock Junction, Iowa. (Who could resist?)
The Jefferson Lines site offered a much better (read more direct) trip which was a reasonable 10 hours through Mankato and Sioux Falls.
Powder River Buslines serve the Hills from the West. Their web site was a hopeless mess when we tried using it, so you are on your own there.
Buses arrive and depart Rapid City at the Milo S. Barber Transportation Center. The Rapid City bus station is located at 333 6th Street, phone 605-348-3300. We've found that by calling the local Rapid City number sometime around 10 a.m. MT you can actually talk to a real person who is helpful. When we questioned her about some on-line information, she said: "The internet is not our friend."
Travel by bus IS more interesting than flying these days.
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