Fort Robinson Nebraska 1 day in August

[michigansandzil]

We'll be heading home to Michigan after visiting the Badlands, Custer State park, Yellowstone and the Tetons. We're stopping at Fort Robinson to spend 1 day. We have kids ages 15,13, and 9. They love everything outdoors, adventurous, even history related.
Any suggestions for what to do inside the park? After all of this traveling, I doubt we'll have any interest in leaving the park.

[CharlesinGA]

3oaks wrote:
I believe a whole vacation could be spent between western Nebraska and the Black Hills of South Dakota.

For the past 14 years we have been meeting up with friends at Custer SP in SD every Fall. Wonderful time of the year. Wind Cave National Park is near by as well as Devils Tower in eastern Wyoming. Plus the a visit to Deadwood and Lead SD while in the area. Plus the train ride being pulled by an old steam engine from Hill City to Keystone SD is enjoyable. Etc, etc. I could go on and on to add places of interest.

Just way too much for the original poster to take in on one trip with what appears to be a pretty full itinerary already.

I did't want to get into the see and do of the Black Hills (some much you could write a book) so I limited my comments to a couple of things on the south end closer to Ft Robinson.

There are lots of things to see and do in Nebraska also, and the OP should tell us his proposed route east to MI, we might be able to make some suggestions.

As 3oaks noted, there is way too much to see and do for a week, and now that I have returned from that trip (left GA on Aug 12, arrived Spearfish on Aug 15 and saw the Eclipse near Alliance, NE on August 21 and departed east and arrived home in the wee early hours of August 24.) I have discovered a number of places and things that I missed, and there are other things I knew I was missing due to the limited time for the trip.

Somewhere in the next couple of years I will again visit the area, if at all possible, or at least stay awhile while passing thru.

Charles

[craig7h]

As the others have said its a great park with a lot of things to do. I spent 3 days there with my 7 year old grand daughter and just loved it. I do not think the other mentioned the indoor pool. The only thing to me that was a disapointment was the chuck wagon trail ride dinner. Do your self a favor and spend more than one day there.

[3oaks]

I believe a whole vacation could be spent between western Nebraska and the Black Hills of South Dakota.

For the past 14 years we have been meeting up with friends at Custer SP in SD every Fall. Wonderful time of the year. Wind Cave National Park is near by as well as Devils Tower in eastern Wyoming. Plus the a visit to Deadwood and Lead SD while in the area. Plus the train ride being pulled by an old steam engine from Hill City to Keystone SD is enjoyable. Etc, etc. I could go on and on to add places of interest.

Just way too much for the original poster to take in on one trip with what appears to be a pretty full itinerary already.

[CharlesinGA]

Not sure how you will be departing Ft Robinson, but about 30 mi east on US20, just past Chadron is the Museum of the Fur Trade. It is chock full of everything related to the fur trade, Indian fur trading, the trading companies, etc. Extremely well organized and worth two or three hours to see. Built on the site of an old fur trading post.

http://www.furtrade.org/

Also in your travels in the "hills" don't miss the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, a rather quaint town with some neat red sandstone buildings.

http://mammothsite.com/

YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE IN THE BLACK HILLS THE FIRST TWO WEEKS OF AUGUST!!! The Motorcycle Rally at Sturgis is Aug 3rd thru the 12th 2018, and the bikers begin touring as early as late July, however they are all gone within a day or so after the end of it. I arrived this year on a Tuesday in Spearfish just two days after it was over, and encountered no bikers at all. Generally attendance is somewhere around 400,000 and the Iron Mountain highway and the Needles Highway along with the rest of the Black Hills are favorite riding areas.

Others may disagree but visiting Rushmore, or simply riding along seeing the scenery with large crowds of bikers passing by and behind and in front of you is not my cup of tea.

Charles

[kohldad]

If they still offer it, the #1 must do at Ft Robinson is the authentic stage coach ride. It will really appreciate today's vehicles plus show just how wrong all of the movies have stage coach travel. We did it 17 years ago but is still one of the strongest camping memories everyone has, even the girls who were 7 and 9 at the time.

[ljr]

I was there for two weeks and didn’t come close to running out of things to do.

I understand there is rodeo and community theater if you are there at the right time.

[Twomed]

Also horseback or jeep rides through the sandstone bluffs for the kids...check their website.

One of our favorite stops on the way to YELL for the summer.

[3oaks]

I would plan on spending at least one night at Fort Robinson as well. A couple of days would be better. Fort Robinson is loaded with authentic "Old West" history from it's beginning as a trading post in the pioneer days right up through it's use through WWII. Some of the old garrison buildings are still standing, along with replica buildings of important significants. And there is also a small museum on site that is full of artifacts.

We have camped at Fort Robinson on four different occasions in our travels West. As you may be able to tell, we found Fort Robinson and the surrounding are very fascinating.