Other Parks and Monuments of the Midwest

This travel guide covers multiple areas in the Black Hills of South Dakota. There are numerous National Park Service units in the area:  Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park,  Jewell Cave National Monument,  Mount Rushmore, and, just over the border in Wyoming,  Devils Tower National Monument. There are many gateway communiteis in the area such as Rapid City, Sturgis, Deadwood, Wall, Custer, and even Custer State Park. This guide gives them at least a few pages on each.

While this guide covers the entire Black Hills area of western South Dakota, it includes eight hikes specifically in Badlands National Park, along with a few pages of information about the park. The hikes range from short half-mile nature trails to an easy seven-mile trail.  

A very useful map. Not only does it have the usual map features, but it also lists four driving tours and seven hikes in the park. Furthermore, it includes a brief section on the area's geology. The map also shows Minuteman NHP and a large area of Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. 

More than just a trail guide, this book covers all the basic information one needs for a visit to one of the more remote parks in the lower 48 states. The book covers camping, the gateway community of Medora, and the highlights of both the north and south units.  Several other recreational activities are covered briefly like biking, boating and winter sports. The appendices include a list of all public lands protected by Teddy Roosevelt as well as lists of plants and animals common in the park.

This map covers the North Unit, the South Unit, and the Elkhorn Ranch units of the park. An additional section of the map covers the Maah Daah Hey Trail and the Buffalo Gap Trail (a workaround for bicycles, which are prohibited in wilderness areas) that connect the park units. This map lists about a dozen hiking trails as additional content.

While covering a much broader area than just Wind Cave National Park, this book includes eight hikes in the park. These hikes range in distance from less than a mile to about eight miles and are mostly rated as "easy " to "moderate".  The book also has a few pages covering general information about the park.

The history of Wind Cave goes back well over 100 years now, but this book covers the first 100 - from its "discovery" in the early 1880s through the 1980s when extensive renovation was done. This tells the story through pictures. Besides the cave itself, the book covers the work of the CCC in the 1930s and the establishment and management of the bison herd in the park.