South Dakota
If you’re like me, you know that the majority of what South Dakota has to offer consists of Mount Rushmore and the surrounding tourist areas. Been there, done that. So has everyone else. You can really only visit stone heads and tourist shops selling cheap gifts so many times. What I could never get enough of, however, is the nature on the south side of South Dakota. We spent two days and three nights exploring everything there was to offer, from the well known Badlands to a small swimming hole in the Black Hills.
The Badlands
After an 8 1/2 hour drive from Brainerd to our campsite just outside of Wall, SD, we knew it was all worth it once we looked over the edge of the cliff. Along the rim on the outside of Badlands National Park sits Buffalo Gap National Grassland. A dirt road littered with pull offs for free camping overlooks layered rock that creates steep hills and valleys. Grassland clumps in patches among the sand and rock and in the distance prairie stops abruptly in small cliffs.
We set up camp quickly but slightly clumsily. While Griffin got some things situated, I made stir fry with Ramen and frozen vegetables for dinner. It was our first night and we were just learning how everything would need to be shifted around to get the truck ready for sleeping. Extra items such as bags or camping chairs are shifted from the bed of the truck to the cab, and bathroom items are dug out so we can wash our faces and brush our teeth. It was a fairly successful endeavor and we fell asleep ready to truly start the trip.
The next morning we both had to use the bathroom, bad, so we decided to take a trip into the Wall Drug that was advertised at least 20 times on billboards along the Interstate. I had been there previously, but as a young child so everything I remembered was a little hazy. It’s a small but entertaining downtown area with gift shops and a couple restaurants, but the main attraction is Wall Drug. Spanning almost an entire block, Wall Drug has everything from a place to eat, to souvenirs, to handcrafted goods. We purchased a few Badlands stickers and postcards, used the bathroom, and were on our way to the National Park.
Tip: buy your souvenirs at national park visitor centers! We bought Badlands merchandise all over again because it was better quality and more interesting than the gift shops in town, and the items weren’t that much more expensive. Plus, some of the money, especially if you round up your total, goes to the park!
The entrance into the Badlands was quite hectic, with Buffalo and Prairie Dogs galore. We stopped just outside of the park to take pictures and watch the animals graze. Prairie Dogs are the cutest things, although their screams can go from funny to annoying after a while. The last two images below can be found on Griffin’s website!
We stopped at almost every lookout in the Badlands. It was our first day and we were excited to get the full experience. Lookouts featured varying layers, stripes, and patterns of rock, some grey and brown while others carried vivid reds and oranges. What looked like crumpled paper spanned in front of our eyes, the jagged hills leading down to valleys and dips we couldn’t quite comprehend the size of. We even saw two Bighorn Sheep sitting at the top of a hill.
We decided to park at the visitor’s center to make lunch. Seeing as the maple breakfast sausage my father had given me couldn’t stay in the cooler for long, we had breakfast for lunch. Eggs, hash browns, and sausage filled our bellies as we looked at the tall walls of rock to our left.
Refueled, we headed to an area to do some hiking. Most of the Badlands are viewpoints, so we were excited to go on our first real hike of the trip. Fossil Exhibit Trail was a short boardwalk around a flat portion of rock with signs informing us of the history of the Badlands. For example, the Badlands used to be shallow sea or that the animals that lived there, some resembling current ones such as alligators, were much smaller.
Just across the road lays open, dry land with small hills and bumps we could climb on. However, not liking crowds, we decided to do the Castle Trail hike, which led us up and away from the open desert-like area and into a prairie. The weather was warm and a cool breeze kept us temperate as we walked the fairly flat route with Badlands’ rock formations behind us and to our right. We decided to turn around halfway into the long hike because it was getting late and we had already done plenty of exploring. Since we have no schedule, we knew it was acceptable to not have to finish the hike.
That night, we slept in the Target parking lot in Rapid City, SD as we got closer to the Black Hills.
Hot Springs, SD
To kill a little time, and explore a bit more, we went down to the town of Hot Springs. There, we attempted to visit the Mammoth Museum but didn’t think the $15 entry fee (each) would be worth the small amount of time spent there. However, if any of you know Griffin, you know that since their was a fossil sifting station we had to buy $13 worth of dirt to get “fossils” from.
Leaving the museum after about ten minutes, we knew we had to find something to make the out of the way trip worth it. I remembered a sign I’d seen for Cascade Falls and we looked it up, finding that it was a well rated swimming and picnic area. Being that it was lunch time we headed into the hills and found the picnic area empty and only one other car in the lot. We made a quick pasta with hot Italian sausage courtesy of my dad, uncle, and grandpa. Changing quickly, we walked down to the swimming area and were in awe of what we saw.
Three sets of gentle cascades formed three different pool-like areas to sit and swim in, each getting gradually deeper. At the end, over the edge of the steepest cascade, was a pool deep enough to jump into off a small cliff. The water was slightly chilly but crystal clear. It felt good after enduring the hot hikes the day before and the warm weather at the time. At first, there was only one family of five there with us. We explored each section until at least ten more people arrived. Taking that as our cue, we left with full bellies, clean bodies, and smiling faces.
The Black Hills
When I visited the Black Hills National Forest and Custer State Park as a child, I never put much thought into why they were called the Black Hills. Visiting again, I realized it’s because of the tightly packed pine trees that line the hills. These trees look dark and dense from afar, making the looming hills look black.
The main attraction we were interested in was Needles Highway, a popular 14 mile drive with tall, granite formations that look like needles or spires. On the way there, though, the rest of the highway was full of rugged mountains, dipping valleys with meadows that shimmer in the sun, and plenty of wildlife. Before Needles Highway we drove up a steep and winding road that set my stomach churning with the cliffs off the side. At the top was lookout that allowed us to see the rolling hills for miles until they became blurry at the horizon.
When we were finally back on flat road, albeit still at high elevation, we continued on the way to Needles Highway. It’s part of Custer State Park, so even though we have the American the Beautiful National Park Pass, we still had to pay the $20 entrance fee to access the highway. It was worth it.
The tall, tapering rocks shot out of the ground like weeds, forming a landscape that looks impossible to have occurred naturally. We even drove through the Needle’s Eye, a tunnel chiseled through a cluster of spires. A short drive with diverse and awe-inspiring views, we recommend this to anyone that’s going to be in the area.
Custer, SD
On the way to our campsite for the night, we passed through the small yet interesting town of Custer. A tourist town of sorts, there were many interesting shops and restaurants to visit. One stop especially caught my eye: the Purple Pie Place! A sucker for ice cream and pie, we had to stop. But this place had more than just dessert, from breakfast to dinner, every food item was homemade. It’s the kind of place that one bite of warm pie and cold ice cream takes you back to childhood summers. I got strawberry rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream and Griffin got his go-to chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.
We then left town to find a campsite. There were plenty to choose from but none had service. Needing service, we decided to head back into town a while longer and had dinner at the Buglin’ Bull. I ordered BBQ boneless wings and Griffin chose the California Chicken BLT. Both were decent meals for a good price, but the chicken was a bit chewy and their homemade potato chips were over seasoned.
When rain rolled in and thunder boomed, we headed back to our campsite for the night. Free, as usual, we stayed in a giant field with trees lining three sides and the road butting up against the other. We didn’t have much time to set up camp and instead sprinted to the back before we could get soaked. Falling asleep to rain and thunder was a soothing way to end a hectic couple of days and the next morning there was a certain calm and lightness in the air. We ate breakfast burritos with homemade bacon and, fueled up, headed to Colorado. It’s still hard to believe we can pick up and head to another state whenever we choose, but that’s the brilliance of this road trip!