After the previous night’s tent-destroying debacle, we formulated a plan centered around a trip to Cabela’s to get a new tent. The plan had us touring Badlands National Park in the morning, then we had to swing by Wall Drug in Wall, SD. They had been advertising since we pulled into South Dakota so it only made sense to support a local business. It seemed like every 1/8th of a mile was a new sign. Both the free ice water and five cent coffee were calling to us.
The one thing that is great about South Dakota is that the speed limits are 80 mph so we were able to travel from town to town rapidly. The problem with South Dakota is that there are hardly any towns across the state.
Our tour of Badlands was fantastic. The geology on display is remarkable and we wanted to take a chance to hike around, but due to our new itinerary, our time restriction only allowed us to drive the loop. We drove through the park on the access road and stopped at all the scenic locations to take a few pictures.
Following Badlands was an hour drive (at 80 mph) to Rapid City, which is at the foot of the Black Hills. We visited the Cabela’s and settled on a cheap option for a tent because we needed something to stay in. After our Cabela’s trip, we headed for Mount Rushmore National Memorial. We had beautiful skies overhead and the crowds were there in force. We made our way to the optimum viewing station and enjoyed the chiseled faces out of solid granite. We also walked the brief trail around the base of the carving and were able to enjoy some interesting angles of the work.
After Mount Rushmore, we made a trip down the road about 25 minutes to Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse is not completed but that does not stop them from charging $11 per person. When completed the work will be amazing but as of now, it is slightly underwhelming.
While at Crazy Horse we noticed the clouds turning black. We had freshly experienced trouble with dark skies and so we looked at the map of the Black Hills region and we decided to drive a while and camp in the Black Hills of Wyoming, closer to the following morning’s first stop at Devil’s Tower.
As we were high-tailing it out of South Dakota we could see the skies opening up and there were tornado warnings popping up around Badlands, so we were thrilled when we arrived at our site with clear skies and few neighbors. We did meet a very nice couple who shared some information about Yellowstone National Park; we hope to investigate these suggestions in the next few days.
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