One of the best kept (not so hidden) secrets of traveling in South Dakota, is the Dignity statue. Dignity stands at the rest area in Chamberlain, just off our Interstate 90. She is magnificent to behold, and from the instant I learned of her, I knew I had to see her someday. This was the main reason why we traveled back home via Chamberlain on our trip to the Black Hills region.

Dignity is easy to access given that she is located just off the interstate at the rest area. But this is not your average rest area either! Inside it also contains an information center with fliers about every region of the state (I found several new place to explore while inside), and also has interpretive displays about the time the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent in the area, complete with a Keelboat replica and a viewing terrace that looks out over the Missouri River! You really should plan to go during open hours for the informational center to get the full experience!

Back to Dignity! The statue has signage near it explaining the vision and goal behind creating the sculpture. Something really unique about it, is that the blue diamonds of her shawl actually were built to “move” in the wind!

On top of the coolness of just viewing Dignity (and the museum inside), you also can walk down a path towards the river for better views of the wide Missouri. There were signs saying to watch for snakes, but we didn’t see any while out and about exploring the path.

So the moral of this story is, it can be easy to bypass a rest area and just keep driving, but this is one rest area you should plan to stop at and stretch your legs for a longer amount of time as it offers lots of history and things to see!

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On our return trip from the Black Hills regions, we decided to come home via Chamberlain so that we could visit the Dignity statue in the morning. We arrived in Chamberlain in time for dinner, checked into our hotel, and then decided to take a walk along the river front.

We walked a portion of the Chamberlain Walking Path that sits along the Missouri River and American Creek. The view of the sunset was just gorgeous and they had so many fun sculptures along the path. It was a very enjoyable way to spend a portion of our evening.

If you ever find yourself in Chamberlain for the night, I highly suggest this walking path as the sun sets! It was just beautiful to witness!

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While on vacation, we find we almost never can go wrong checking out a pub. Pub food always seems to be good food. Lucky’s 13 was no different! We did partially decide to check it out due to raving reviews from Andrew’s family after they visited the Bismarck, North Dakota location. Turns out there are quite a few of these spread throughout the Dakotas and Minnesota!

Lucky’s 13 in Spearfish is located in a newer development north of town attached to a hotel and conference center. Our GPS guided us to a bank parking lot that I think it assumed was attached to Lucky’s lot, but we actually had to drive back around and further up the hill to access it.

The parking lot was pretty full when we arrived, as it shares the lot with the hotel and conference center. We actually had to park closer to the hotel, but the restaurant itself was dead when we got there for an early dinner.

There were so many tasty looking options on the menu, but I just couldn’t pass up the Jumbo Pretzel. I’m not a fan of mustard so just asked for a double portion of cheese dip.

The pretzel ran me $10, but as you can see, it was HUGE! Plus they gave me more than enough cheese for dipping purposes. I actually had extra pretzel to take home with me!

Andrew opted for the Cheese Curd Mac & Cheese, and then did an extra side of curds so that I could try them as well. It was a very cheese filled meal, completely appropriate for a Wisconsin girl like me!

Again you can see the portion was huge! The cheese curds were super tasty and Andrew really enjoyed his Mac and Cheese, although determined that in the future he would just do the standard Mac and Cheese, as it’s cheesy enough without the cheese curds.

We got our food relatively quickly as we were there early, but after we were eating the place started to fill up more as it seemed the conference being held at the conference center next door was wrapping up.

I highly recommend the food at Lucky’s 13 Pub and am guessing any of their locations would be well worth a visit!

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Following our lunch in Rapid City, we took the afternoon to drive Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. The start of the scenic byway is just off the interstate, and there were many signs pointing us in the right directions. We wanted to drive this both to view the fall foliage and the 3 major waterfalls that are located along the byway.

The first waterfall is easily accessible. There is a roadside stop off area to one side and across the road is Bridal Veil Falls.

There is a small viewing platform area where you can get some decent photos of the falls, but this is a very quick stop to just pose for a picture, snap a few others of the falls on their own, and hop back in the car.

The next two sets of falls are located much further south along the byway. You will reach the small town of Savoy that offers a nice lodge and restaurant. To the west is a dirt road that will lead to Roughlock Falls. We opted to park at the trailhead to get a nice hike in. There is a small bathroom located at the start of the trail and parking for a few vehicles. You also can adventure further up the road to get a closer parking spot to the falls.

On this hike you can see many beautiful plants along the creek bed and also the canyon walls towering high above. The end goal is of course, Roughlock Falls. You can get a nice shot below them when hiking the trail and then also take the series of path bridges to climb further above the falls, closer to that second parking area. Lots of unique vantage points for viewing Roughlock Falls.

Roughlock Falls is located on the lodge side of the road. For Spearfish Falls, you will want to park by the restaurant. Here they have a small overlook from the top and you can look down below to also see the lower viewpoint that you can hike to.

You can’t fully appreciate the falls from above, so I highly recommend making the short hike down to that lower viewpoint for some especially stunning views! This was by far our favorite of the three!

The Spearfish Canyon Byway is well worth the afternoon (or morning) trek. You can easily view all three of these beautiful falls in a couple of hours. It’s especially beautiful in the fall as the leaves are changing! I would certainly return, and while we ran into a few other couples hiking here or there, we were relatively alone in our visit, making it very peaceful!

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