has anyone stayed at the thundercove inn in deadwood sd and is it clean and comfortable? does deadwood have an old west feel to it and what are the views like from there?

Sorry, can't help you with the Thundercover but....

Deadwood is mostly in a gulch/valley/gully kind of thing. Not a spectacular canyon like Zion but it does have a river running through it and some stone/wooded hills rising around (most would call them black hills ;-). Go to the cemetary where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried and you get a good view looking down into town.

i agree zion is awesome. im glad to hear deadwood sounds nice and i'll surely check out the graves. is it free? Thanks for the help.

I was there yesterday...just a bunch of gambling casinos. If that's what you like then it's ok. If you're not into gambling, go somewhere else or just see it for a few hours. This is MHO

During our recent drive out there, we visited Devil's Tower, of course, but basically drove past Deadwood without stopping. Didn't look interesting to us, either.

Vermonter

When I was a kid (oh, I used to hate when adults said that!!)Deadwood felt like a pretty cool western town. I visited 2 years ago and agree with the previous poster; nothing but casinos now. I am not a casino fan, so I earlier than planned.

No help with the Thundercover. Deadwood is a gambling town, its worth a drive thru and a "look-see". We have been to the Black Hills many times and there are many more interesting places to see and things to do than stay in Deadwood. That is unless you are there to gamble.

OK, I feel the need to stand up a bit for Deadwood. While it does have low level gambling, it is not a "gambling town" Ever been to Vegas or Tunica or Atlantic City?...those are gambling towns.

Try out the reenactment of the shooting of Wild Bill and the trial that follows. Perhaps I am partial, I got picked to be on the jury and had a real blast! I don't remember if the cemetary tour was free but if not, it was close. For a slight fee you can tour a gold mine and pan for gold.

It is definately worth 1/2 a day or more without gambling.

placeu2 - I'm glad to hear a more positve report. I have planned two nights in Deadwood. My plan was to leave Hill City, where we will stay for several nights, drive through the Badlands, stop at Wall Drug, spend the night in Deadwood, the next day visit Devil's Tower, do the Wild Bill stuff and see the Passion Play in Spearfish the second night. Does that sound doable?

Thanks,

Barbara

Barbara,

We did Devils Tower as a day trip one day and thouroughly enjoyed it. Sounds very reasonable to me.

I'm coming a bit late to this thread but I too have to stick up a little for Deadwood. There's lots more than just gambling (although there is plenty of that!).

If you dig a little beneath the surface there are a lot of very interesting things to see/do:

- The Adams House- victorian style house with much of it's furnishings intact (if my memory is correct, the owner abandoned it in the 1930's and left everything behind, even items in the pantry).
- The Adams Museum - very cool museum, free (donations accepted) and very interesting.
- Mt. Moriah Cemetary - where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried, along with many others... was interesting to hear the history behind these people and to think of the lives that they lead so many years ago.
- Just outsite of town we drove/hiked up to the Roosevelt Monument on Mt. Roosevelt, one of the highlights of our trip that year.
- Also just outside of town you can drive to the top of Terry Peak and see all the way to Bear Butte and to Wyoming.
- We always have fun poking around at Deadwood Dick's Antiques (across from the Adams Museum).

We don't gamble but have wandered a bit thru some of them on the main drag... one of them had quite a display of movie memorabilia (sp?)- I think it was the Celebrity Hotel.

The one thing we've not found so far is a nice restaurant. We usually picnic at one of the parks.