Beautiful Spaces: Where We Stayed in Keystone, South Dakota

Welcome back to Beautiful Spaces—a series of posts in which I talk about the places where I stay during my travels. It all started in 2013 when I realized that my contentment on the road is directly connected to how much I love where I’m living…and so made a commitment to find beautiful spaces to call home along the way. This hotel was kind enough to provide a complimentary stay in exchange for this review, but as always, opinions are my own.

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Keystone was kind of an accident.

You see, when we were planning our road trip, mapping our route from a winter in northern Arizona to an early summer visit to my sister for her we-just-got-married party, we weren’t sure where to stop between Jackson, Wyoming, where I wanted to see the Grand Tetons, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I’d be attending a fabulous annual content strategy conference.

So we traced our route and Chad pointed to the map: “there, Rapid City.”

He was right. It was right smack dab in the middle of that journey. And so I started doing some research and, serendipitously, discovered that just a little ways south of Rapid City, which in and of itself didn’t excite me, was the town of Keystone.

Much smaller and closer to nature, Keystone was a much better option. I was thrilled when I stumbled upon it, and I started reaching out to cabins and lodges right away.

Keystone’s claim to fame is Mount Rushmore, but I have mixed feelings about the whole government-sanctioned graffiti thing, so we stayed away from that tourist trap and instead found ourselves enjoying a long hike on a rocky, forested trail (watching out for mountain lions the whole time and smacking rocks together sometimes so as not to startle them) and a few nights in a sweet little honeymoon suite cabin tucked up in the woods outside town.

The cabins belong to a lodge called Powder House, open mid-May through mid-October. And, as I said above, we stayed in their honeymoon suite, a cabin most notable for its private hot tub and deck with views up the hill and into the national forest.

The cabin itself was clean and simple, with warm-colored wood beams and a cozy couch (where I planted myself during our workday). Wi-Fi worked well. The heater went out while we were there, but was quickly fixed and we had a backup heater in the room. And the location was great, quietly tucked away from it all, but only about five minutes drive into Keystone.

We didn’t go to the Bandlands (though we did drive through/past them), but they’re only about an hour away, as well.

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Cabins start around $80 per night and the honeymoon suite with its private hot tub starts at $189.95. Pets are welcome with a one-time $15 fee. There is a kitchenette in each cabin, but cooking supplies and utensils are not provided, so we recommend traveling as we do with some forks and spoons and bowls.

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Looking for more places to stay? You can see all the beautiful spaces I’ve stayed in here.