Hill City's Trees and Trains

Dec 10, 2020

All who love Christmastime and trains should rendezvous in Hill City this holiday season. (Anyone who doesn’t love Christmastime and trains might plan to see a doctor.) The South Dakota State Railroad Museum is fun any season of the year, but the locomotives and train exhibits truly shine during the holidays when Rick Mills and his crew add tinsel, holly and lights. The museum’s annual Trees & Trains exhibit is open December weekends and Christmas Eve day. It’s alongside South Dakota’s 1880 Train, which transforms into the Holiday Express every December. Families make lasting memories on the two-hour journey, steaming through the Black Hills in winter. The 1880 crew has implemented many COVID-19 policies to keep you and your family safe. All aboard! Several of Hill City’s favorite restaurants are open year-round, including the beautifully decorated Alpine Inn, a Black Hills staple, and a new place, Pizzeria Mangiamo, that features artisan wood-fire pizzas — one of South Dakota’s very few new restaurants to open during the pandemic.