Bavarian Inn Black Hills

About Bavarian Inn Black Hills

The Bavarian Inn traces its origins to 1973, when immigrants from Bavaria purchased five and a half acres of ponderosa pine forest in Custer, South Dakota and built the kind of property they recognized from home: timbered gables, steep alpine rooflines, and a hospitality philosophy rooted in personal warmth. The Jackl family maintained it for four decades. Sherry Beck and Marcel Wahlstrom purchased the inn in 2014. Sherry brought 22 years of hotel industry experience, rebuilt the booking infrastructure to nearly double occupancy, and earned the Custer County Chronicle's Citizens of the Year in 2019. The inn sits on Highway 385, the primary corridor through the Black Hills, less than three miles from Crazy Horse Memorial.

What Bavarian Inn Black Hills Is Known For

The Bavarian Inn's founding story is not a positioning statement. The original owners came from Bavaria and built a property that reflected what hospitality looked like in the forested landscapes they knew. The alpine rooflines and timbered gables on five and a half acres of ponderosa pine in South Dakota are the result of that specific origin, not a renovation committee's decision about differentiation. What Sherry and Marcel Wahlstrom brought in 2014 was not a redesign. Sherry had spent 22 years managing hotels, the last eight as general manager of a major Rapid City property. She applied that experience to every operational detail guests actually encounter: the booking system, the daily breakfast bar, the cookie happy hour, the fitness trail through the pines. The Custer County Chronicle named the Wahlstroms Citizens of the Year in 2019. Guests across many years and many reviews independently use the same phrase: arriving feels like visiting a favorite cousin. That is not a coincidence.

Amenities

• Pets Welcome
• EV Charging
• Breakfast Included
• WiFi
• Daily cookie happy hour (fresh-baked cookies and milk)
• Complimentary Pancake and Parfait Breakfast Bar
• Feel Good Cafe on-site
• Indoor heated pool, hot tub, and game room (year-round)
• Outdoor heated pool (seasonal)
• Three-quarter-mile European Fitness Trail through the pines
• Pickleball and basketball courts
• Two playgrounds
• Hammocks throughout the grounds
• Equipment checkout (basketballs, soccer balls, croquet, and more)
• Free arcade games
• Guest laundry facilities
• EV charging stations
• Pet-friendly exterior rooms with pet relief area

The Room

Rooms are distributed across two-story exterior-access wings, with every room reached directly from outside through its own door rather than an interior corridor. Room formats range from compact queen and king standards to Deluxe rooms with double-door exterior entry, a King Jacuzzi room with a two-person in-room Jacuzzi, and multi-room suites with a full kitchen setup and pullout sofa sleeper. All rooms include a Nectar mattress, TV, microwave, refrigerator, and hair dryer. Select rooms have walk-out balcony access to the exterior porch areas facing the ponderosa pines. The alpine chalet architecture means exterior walkways run the length of each wing, lined with flower boxes and faced toward the trees. Rooms on the forest-facing side of the property look into the tree canopy of the five-and-a-half-acre grounds.

The Grounds

Five and a half acres of ponderosa pine forest surround the property. A three-quarter-mile European Fitness Trail winds through the trees with exercise stations spaced along the route. Two pools anchor the recreation layer: an indoor heated pool with hot tub and arcade game room, open year-round from morning until evening, and an outdoor heated pool open through the summer season. Pickleball and basketball courts, two playgrounds, equipment checkout for yard games, and hammocks strung between the pines fill out the grounds. The property's flower gardens are maintained seasonally and extend from the parking areas through the porch seating around the main lodge. EV charging stations are on-site. Free parking throughout the lot.

The Experience

Cookie happy hour happens every afternoon, with fresh-baked cookies and milk available to all guests. It is a small detail that guests across years of reviews consistently describe as the moment that set the tone for the stay. The morning begins with a complimentary Pancake and Parfait Breakfast Bar and coffee service. The Feel Good Cafe on-site serves additional breakfast and cafe options throughout the morning. The property operates with the kind of attentiveness that is difficult to sustain in a large property: Sherry's background in hotel general management produces a consistency guests notice across years and seasons. The property draws families making use of the full grounds, couples on Black Hills road trips, and return guests who have been coming since the Jackl family era. Highway 385 gives immediate access to the full Black Hills circuit in both directions. Crazy Horse Memorial is under three miles north. Custer State Park, Needles Highway, and Sylvan Lake are a short drive south. Mount Rushmore and Iron Mountain Road are roughly 25 miles northeast. The entire Black Hills loop, including all major landmarks and scenic byways, is accessible from this property as a day circuit.

Details

Frequently Asked Questions

Things to Do Near the Black Hills

Crazy Horse Memorial

3 miles, about a 5 minute drive, or you can bike there.

The world's largest mountain carving in active progress, Crazy Horse Memorial is located less than three miles north of the inn on Highway 385. The memorial honors the Oglala Lakota warrior and is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation as a non-profit educational and cultural institution. The site includes a museum, cultural center, and regular mountain blasting events that are scheduled in advance.

Custer State Park

5 miles, about a 10 minute drive, or you can bike there.

South Dakota's largest state park, Custer State Park covers 71,000 acres of Black Hills terrain south of the inn. The park is home to one of the largest free-roaming bison herds in the world, along with Sylvan Lake, the Cathedral Spires, and Needles Highway, a narrow scenic byway through granite formations. Wildlife drives, hiking, boating, and climbing are all available within the park.

Needles Highway

8 miles, about a 15 minute drive.

Needles Highway, South Dakota Highway 87, is a 14-mile scenic byway through the Black Hills that passes through narrow granite tunnels and alongside the Cathedral Spires rock formations inside Custer State Park. The route is one of the most photographed drives in the region and connects to Sylvan Lake and the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway.