How to Stay Stoked for a Black Hills Move
You’ve visited the Black Hills and you’ve fallen in love. Maybe you’re poking around on Zillow, looking at homes. Or you’ve taken the plunge and made a purchase and are now committed to making a big move, but you are second guessing. “The winters are tough,” you think. Or, “will I love living there as much as I loved visiting?”
Here are some ideas to keep you excited and interested in making the beautiful Black Hills your home.
Join one of the many Black Hills Hiking Facebook Groups
At first it may seem ridiculous, but hear me out. These groups are a treasure trove of beautiful summertime (and occasional wintertime) photos of the Black Hills. In my personal experience, nothing could have done a better job of selling me on returning here than to log on and see these photos come up on my feed. Few things do justice to the beauty of the Hills like landscape photography. Even the most amateurish of snaps can awaken your senses to what it feels like to actually be here basking in the magic.
Indulge Your Dreams
Before my family moved here, we discussed many personal and professional goals. Some of them were impractical from the start and some of them remain achievable. One of those faroff goals is the impetus behind this very website. There was something about articulating to each other how we could envision our lives that took mere fantasy and transmuted it to achievable reality. We had to dream big to come back to our senses. Have we accomplished all of our goals? No. Not even a lot of them. But we are much closer now than we have ever been. And that in and of itself is meaningful.
Or, I’ll let my boy Barry Lopez take it:
“When a boundary in the known world…becomes instead a beckoning horizon, the leading edge of a farther destination, then a world one has never known becomes an integral part of one’s new universe. Memory and imagination come into play. The unknown future calls out to the present and to the remembered past, and in that moment of expansion, the imagined future seems attainable.”
–Horizon (emphases his)
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said. RIP, Barry.
Do Lots Of Research
I grew up here, but you would be surprised at how much I never bothered to experience or learn. Or, at least you should be, because I was. The Black Hills, for example, are, geologically speaking, not hills, but mountains. And they are older than the Himalayas. According to Edward Raventon’s book Island in the Plains (see below) when conditions are right, these Black Hills can create their own weather systems. I didn’t know this until very recently. Very, very recently, Like, yesterday-recently.
Also, you wouldn’t think it, but the Black Hills is a remarkably biodiverse area, surrounded by what is essentially a grass desert. Hence the rarely acknowledged nickname the Island in the Plains. I haven’t even mentioned the voluminous and oft-times unflattering historical significance of the area, particularly to westward expansion and the late stage-gold rush. There are nuggets to be found, but you have to do some digging. That was a mining pun and I’m sorry.
Some books worth checking out to enrich your research: Island in the Plains by Edward Raventon, Old Deadwood Days by Estelline Bennett and especially Great Plains by Ian Frazier.
Do Some (Minimal) Shopping
This suggestion may seem a little silly, but you will probably need at least some kind of gear to adapt to the climate and/or lifestyle. Buy some overalls for yardening (yard work+gardening), waterproof shoes for hiking, some mittens for the snow, a tackle box if you’re a fisherperson—whatever it is to make the abstract process of thinking about moving physical and real. I’m no advocate for conspicuous consumption, so make sure you check Facebook marketplace for used gear. There are also a number of pretty decent consignment, vintage and second hand stores in Rapid City so you don’t have to buy everything brand new when you get here.
Then once you’re here, you can, with confidence…
What's Good, Black Hills? 
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