Those of us that live in or have visited the beautiful Black Hills tend to think it’s a pretty special place. This morning I stumbled across a feature article showing that the folks at National Geographic Traveler magazine think so too.

In their recent article ‘Drives of a Lifetime,” NatGeo named the Black Hills as one of the most scenic drives in the entire world! We’re in pretty good company too, as the list includes locations in New Zealand, Italy, Jamaica and England just to name a few. The complete listing can be read at ‘Drives of a Lifetime.’

The article gives a pretty good overview of the Black Hills and Badlands areas as it guides readers around a sort of figure-eight driving tour across the region. Starting in the Badlands, it takes readers west into Rapid City and then heads south to Mount Rushmore.

From the faces, NatGeo suggests readers loop in and around through Custer State Park, the town of Custer itself and then finally head north past Crazy Horse and on up highway 385 to Deadwood. I was pleasantly surprised at some of the local favorites that the article picked out to recommend to readers. Things like the Cathedral Spires hike, Slate Creek Grille and Saloon #10.

“People come to see Mount Rushmore but what they discover while they’re here is how beautiful everything else is,” Mary Kopco of Deadwood’s Adams Museum & House told National Geographic.

We absolutely agree!