Day 4: More Driving, Badlands NP, Mt. Rushmore, Needles Hwy

I woke up really early today. I hadn’t reset my watch to Central Time. This isn’t a problem normally because I am normally with it enough mentally to compensate by subtracting an hour. Apparently this is not the case at 5:30am. It was a fortunate screw up in that we actually left my sister’s house at 8am, which is the time I aspired to leave. 

We spent many hours driving through Iowa and South Dakota. We did see a flock of flying whooping cranes out the window in Iowa. That was pretty amazing. We also managed to finish Things Fall Apart and have a lively discussion on its quality as a story and its historical literary importance.

Here is some random info about South Dakota. Fourteen and a half year olds can get driver’s licenses in South Dakota. The speed limit on the highway is often 80mph. The capital is Pierre. 

We were excited to arrive at Badlands National Park. We were especially grateful to get out of the car and do some short hikes. We did the Door Trail and Window Trail. These trails were very short and had boardwalks. We skipped the slightly longer and more strenuous Notch Trail because we had several things on the agenda and wanted to arrive at Needles Highway before dark. If I could go back in time, I would have skipped the shorter trails and done Notch. 

We stopped by the Visitor Center for water. Then, we climbed the Saddle Pass Trail. It was a fairly strenuous, but short uphill climb to some nice overlooks. Near the top Ezi went to stand on a ledge and had a rattlesnake poke its head out of a hole by his foot in a non-friendly manner. It gave him a warning rattle after the head jab. When I walked down to the area he was we saw a (different?) rattlesnake curled up on the rocks not far from the holes Ezi had been standing by. That was quite an adventure!

Next, we learned about the geological history of the area at the Fossil Exhibit Trail. We drove the extremely scenic Badlands Loop Road out of the park. The western half of the loop road had beautiful yellow and pink rock formations and   a very picturesque mountain pass. We even saw a few long horned sheep and several prairie dogs.

As we exited the park we came to Wall, SD. If you have ever seen the “Where in the world is Wall Drug?” bumper sticker and pondered that question, wonder no more. It is in Wall. After seeing billboards the entire and lengthy drive through South Dakota we couldn’t resist a short visit. We stopped in and refilled our water bottles with the complimentary cold water. We had no cell service all day and didn’t see the messages from my sister and brother-in-law saying it was a totally corny tourist trap. It absolutely was. It reminded me a bit of the all the shops at St. Augustine rolled into one. Anyway, now we have gone and don’t need to go again :)

From there we drove to Mt. Rushmore. We saw a groundhog. There were also small piles of snow, even though the temperature was in the 70’s. We quickly made our way around the short Presidential Loop Trail. It had great views of Mt. Rushmore. 

We left Mt. Rushmore and wanted to quickly get to Needles Highway as the sun was about to go down. We did get sidetracked right outside Mt. Rushmore because there was a climbing area in the Black Hills National Forest the boys wanted to check out. It was a very extensive rock climbing area that we reluctantly left behind.

The landscape here in the Black Hills is really interesting and got increasingly impressive as we made our way closer to Needles Highway.

Needles Highway is curvy, with giant rock formations that tower close along the road. There are also neat rock tunnels only large enough for one car at a time. Since the sun was setting at this time, we weren’t able to stop for many of the overlooks. 

Needles Highway is located in Custer State Park. We had a cabin reserved in the park, which we eventually found. By that time it was dark although the moon was bright. We saw our first bison on the way to the campground.

We were looking forward to hot food when we realized we didn’t pack a lighter for the propane stove. Or matches. The boys took the car and tried to find a lighter at the camp store or the Lodge nearby. Unfortunately, both were closed. Eventually, we reluctantly ate a cold dinner and got ready for bed.