I've booked a great trip to the black hills area for mid Sept., four full days in a great cabin near Rapid City. Could someone please advise me of any real tourist traps. I hate cheesy attractions. All of the guides I rec'd from SD say "family approved". Is that another term for "not worth it"?

Depends on your own situation. What's cheesy to one is fondue to another.

Places like "reptile land" or "yogi bear's jellystone park" or the go-cart race track may very well be considered cheesy, but if you have small kids, they can be the most memorable part of a trip.

Same can be said for the various cave tours or the mammouth dig sites.

Some find the Black Hills train ride hokey or a waste of time, but others kick back, put themselves on a slower pace and reflect back to the frontier days.

I know nothing of the Black Hills area, and cannot help one bit, but had to chime in with how much I love this:

"What's cheesy to one is fondue to another."

Just about made me spit diet pepsi out my nose, but so, so true!

Cosmos is really cheesy, but loads of fun if you have little ones. It's been years since I've been out there, so not sure about admission prices, but you could skip it if it's too spendy. And I agree with J62 - some of the stuff can border on tourist trap/cheesy, but some is just plain fun if you have kids.

Wall Drug
but after reading their signs for what seemed like hundreds of miles, we just had to stop.

Cheesy or not, one MUST stop at Wall drug!!!!

......and get the free ice water!

Mount Rushmore. Just kidding. I think you can spend several days there without the traps. The Badlands, Deadwood, lots of great hiking. I wish I could go back.

What we consider cheesy now that we travel with a 17 year old and a 14 year old was great fun and perfect when those same teens were tiny. They both LIVED for trips to Reptile Garden--my son still talks about the chicken that played tic-tac-toe. We have fond memories of Rep. Gardens, and it oooooozes cheese!

The Cosmos is a huge tourist trip, but again, it's vacation and it's all about fun, right?

Perspective is everything, isn't it? I think Bear Country USA is way over priced and not that great an attraction. My daughters think it is wonderful. I LOVE the Reptile Gardens - probably even the Queen of England would stay for the gator wrestling. And you know what a significant part alligators play in South Dakota history! Those dinosaur sculpture...well, at least they're free. I did one cavern tour that was just dreadful - we had to follow a dirt trail, past the rusty Coca-Cola cooler, behind the barn... but we still laugh about that. Those spiffy professional cavern tours are hardly worth a mention. And, because I'm almost 1/2 Norwegian, the Stave Church was very interesting to me but probably not to everyone.

Some people here would tell you staying in a cabin anywhere is cheesy.

We loved the Black Hills area.

We visited the following: Wind Cave NP, Custer SP, Jewel Cave NM, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Keystone, Rushmore Borglum Story/Borglum Historical Center, Journey Museum, Circle B Chuckwagon Supper & Show, Wall Drug, Wounded Knee Museum, National Grasslands VC, Minuteman Missile NHS, Badlands NP, Deadwood & Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway.

Have fun!

I wonder what my tent would be called?

P.S.
Would it be cheesy to admit that I cry at Mt. Rushmore's evening show?

Cosmos is definitely cheesy. The whole time we were there I was convinced it must be an optical illusion but I couldn't really figure it out. But I like cheese; glad we went. The little western towns are tourist traps, but at least take the time to walk down the sidewalks. If you're not into gambling, then Deadwood is a city to avoid. All in all, there is so much to do in that area it made for a great trip. Talk about cheesy, travel about 3 hours south in Nebraska (toward Sidney) and check out Carhenge. A Stonehenge style structure made out of old cars.

Carhenge is near the town of Alliance NE, its worth the stop if you are passing that way.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...&ct=image&cd=1

If you're going through Nebraska, I recommend the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron. It's small but really interesting--displays of "wampum" etc.

If you don't want cheesy, you should avoid South Dakota, It is one of the campiest places I have ever been. That being said, we loved it. It was our mission to explore all these places and embrace the cheese. We went to Wall Drug, Deadwood, the Maze, Cosmos, a gold mine, we panned for gold, a water park and paintballing in Grand Rapids, Cave of the Winds,Reptile World, you name it, we did it. The kids loved it! As for real treasures, don't miss the Badlands, it is amazing. We did some of the most amazing horseback riding at a place close to Lead, called Andys. The kids went on a night ride through the woods. The horses ran in the pitch black. They thought it was the most exciting thing ever. I rode during the day! Unlike in Colorado, you can run horses in South Dakota.

REALLY cheesy would have been adding another face to Mount Rushmore considering the candidates.