CuatroSpruce

Hello,

My boyfriend is a Native American history buff and we're planning to road trip to Wounded Knee/Mount Rushmore/Badlands as soon as the snow lets up. A few questions: any idea when the snow lets up? And I haven't been reading great things about Wounded Knee the memorial. I'd hate to travel all the way only to be disappointed. Does anyone have any current insight? I'll also gladly take any suggestions on must-sees/must-dos on this roadtrip.

Thanks so much!

WhereAreWe

There have been no recent changes to the memorial so don't expect much

Snow should be melted probably by the end of March, but they could still get a late snowstorm after that. I would wait until May to be reliably sure of no snow. And it should be greened up by then too.

monpetit

There are 2 ways to understand Wounede Knee :
- the site in itself, no much to see- it's like those historic marquers along roads. Only the markers are to see, often!!
There is a little cemetery and some graves are out of usual for us, non indians...The building was only showing some old newspapers...
- near Pine ridge, there is a nice museum at Red Cloud Indian school and it's more on the indian culture than on Wounde Knee
- and finally thre is a "wounded Knee" museum in Wall. We visit it 5-6 years ago and it seems to us that it was somewhat objective on the historic events but not so on the actual situation of the native indians on the region.
A small section was on the more recent event with the 70's wounded knee revolt but I don't know if it 's alwways here.
Don't forget that Pine Ridge county is on eof the poorest county of US.
But we have had some good day here between all of this.
For me, the day would be
- WK museum in Wall,
- the drive to WK site
- and finally Red Cloud indian school.
Erik

WhereAreWe

Let me amend my statement on the weather: they will probably be snow-free before the end of March but spring weather is variable, so some time in mid-April/early May *should* be reliably snow-free. They might get snowfall but it shouldn't stick around long at that time of year.

Look at their temp averages:
http://www.nps.gov/badl/planyourvisit/weather.htm

The forecast has a high in the mid-50s today, but snow later this week.

Where are you coming from? That would help determine an exact order in which you should visit things.

CuatroSpruce

Hi. Thanks for all of your insights. We'd be coming from San Francisco, so I'd love to get your opinion on how the road trip should be planned and how long we'd need for a relatively easy going car trip. I'm still not convinced that WK is worth the visit: in your honest opinion, is it?