Shelly
Today we drove through Badlands National Park on our way to our next campsite. On this portion we got our worst gas mileage yet…7.4 MPG for one tank. But as we got higher, it was nice watching the temps drop. 86…84…77…that got another smile out of Sam.
First stop: Badlands National Park. It was really more of a “33 mile scenic driving loop” than a stop. There is some great hiking in the park. But it’s not dog friendly. So we were just here to observe. Badlands is over 100,000 acres and was created after the last ice age when the whole area was under water. So I suppose this is what it would look like if we drained the oceans. Everywhere we looked it was either prairie plains or these huge rock formations (sculpted spires, yellow mounds or Mesas) just jutting out of the ground. Then right when we were about to leave the park, we came across a group of Bison, happily grazing along the road.
Next Stop: Wall Drugs in Wall, SD. Back in the 1930’s depression era, the family who owned the drug store in Wall, SD put up lots of homemade billboards along the road systems in South Dakota, advertising “Free Cold Water.” That brought travelers flocking to Wall and put the place on the map. Now, the billboards are still there and just as campy. And any trip to SD would not be complete without a stop at Wall Drug. We counted 68 Wall Drug billboards today, not to mention the 10 or 15 we saw yesterday.
Wall Drugs was pretty crowded. Much more crowded than anywhere we’ve been in months. This was our late lunch spot, complete with bison burgers.
Then we drove on through Rapid City, SD and into a hilly forested area, much different from the big, wide open spaces we’ve seen for the past couple days. We arrived at our next camp right as a light rain shower moved in.
Our latest campsite is right on Sheridan Lake. We are very excited…we finally get to stay in one place for 2 nights and get to enjoy the fruits of all our driving…and some cooler weather!
Sheridan Lake is in the Black Hills National Forest. The campground is great. The camp sites are well spaced out. And for vault toilets, they really aren’t THAT bad. And there is zero cell service out here. That’s kind of nice. (I’m posting this update from the marina while the boys are fishing Tuesday AM)
But the bigger issue was the rain. It drizzled on us while we set up, but then stopped long enough for Sam and I to take a short walk and the boys to go fishing.
But the rain was just long enough to get everything wet enough to make starting a campfire hard. Sam and the boys got one going just long enough to cook hotdogs and s’mores. But other than that, it wasn’t a good fire night…especially when the rain came back around 9 MST or so. We retreated to tent and trailer for a chilly night of sleeping, listening to the rain.
All in all, a pretty good day.
Xoxo,
Shelly
What We're Eating:
Dinner: Hot dogs (the boys wanted to cook them over a fire they built) and more of the bread and jam from our HipCamp night.
Temperatures:
Started mid 80’s but ended probably around 50, then dropped to probably lower 40’s and breezy overnight
Time to Setup: about 20 minutes
Time to Packup/Pullout this morning: 34 minutes (no batwing to put away helped)
Drive Time: 10.5 hrs including stops
Total miles: 1,572
Number of Wall Drug Signs we passed on I-90: 68
