Souf Dakota

South Dakota

So I left Colorado headed for the Badlands. Things to do before you camp at the badlands: Check the weather. My stay here was cut short by brutal thunderstorms. The badlands is notorious for absurdly windy, harsh climates, with severe weather changes between night and day.

Anyways, the drive starts off leaving what is known as “The gateway to the Rockies,” so it was pretty mountainous. I headed up into Southeastern Wyoming, crossed over a state boarder and headed north to South Dakota through Nebraska. The area around Nebraska and Wyoming's borders isn't as dull as Nebraska has been alleged to be. I'm sure it gets more boring eastward... Anyways, it was basically very dead looking grass, crazy amounts of hills (not steep, really, just up and down nonsense), and even more amounts of nothingness. Every now and then on the drive I would see a pretty sick looking geological feature. Sometimes it was just a small hill closer to me than expected, and a few times, it was a huge jutting rock formation sprouting from the bland hills. Some of it was kinda cool, to be honest. A lot better than areas of Texas... ugh.

I took a bunch of pictures of the drive, here are some:

leaving Boulder

Things!

I think this was called Bear Mountain. Doubt it.

echoes of the Badlands

I eventually got to an area where these jutting rock formations were becoming commonplace. I was approaching the badlands.

I got to the campsite at about 7 p.m. Right around sunset. Horribly unfortunate, because the winds were gusting between 60 and 80 mph. I don't know if you ever tried to set up a tent in severe winds in the dark by yourself before, but it's not picnic. It took me about an hour and a half before I got down what would be my sleeping arrangement for a couple nights.

Good times.

It would have been a longer stay, but while the badlands are always windy, they're not always THAT windy. And while it's a pretty dry place, when it rains it pours. A thunderstorm incoming got me out there, sent me packing to go see Mt Rushmore, but before I did, I did some hiking in the badlands:

Snakes!

I'll go forwards despite snakes, look at that shit!

seemingly endless labyrinth of rocky craziness

After hiking, I set out west for Rapid City, a cool little city in South Dakota not far from Mt. Rushmore. On my way, I saw a million billboards for Drug Wall, South Dakota. It was just a drug store, in Wall, South Dakota. It was a big drug store, like... a large CVS, only shittier. Don't stop here. I kept west to Rapid City. I went to a place called the Firehouse Brewery, No one there must like good beer, because that was the only brewery for miles and it was bland as could be. Don't waste your time.

I then got to Mt. Rushmore, not far from Rapid City. Very bland tourist attraction. You go in, walk up, look, walk back. It was cool, because we got 1.5” thick hail from the thunderstorm I evaded at badlands (phew...) Upon hearing this warning, I parked in a garage at rushmore, saved my vehicle a bit, I'm sure. Anyways, here's the obligatory Rushmore pic (I have a bonus one of it after the rain hit, George Washington was crying. It came out shitty because of the fog, and poor lighting. Bummer.) :

Anyways, from there, I got a cabin outside of rushmore at Custer state park in South Dakota, not any more than an hour from Mt. Rushmore on the badassest road yet: Iron mountain road. It was so badass I took a video. These little 360° turns happen a bunch, and there were plenty of other switchbacks, hairpin turns, and rock tunnels. It was damn awesome, here's the vid:

The campground host was not present when I arrived, so that didn't happen. It was pouring, there was nice hotel with some cheap options right by the South Game Lodge capsite in Custer state park, so I did that. Bummer. Oh well, It was treacherous out there...

They had a hotel bar with some pretty solid Bison Burgers, which I enjoyed. I ate that, drank a bit, and got to writing up that Colorado post I made before this.

In the morning, I decided to get lost in Custer state park, what an excellent idea that was. Custer state park is part of the Black Hills national forest. After today, I must say that I will try hard to return to that park and camp sometime when it's nicer out. It was a pretty glorious place. Here's some photos for the get-lost-in-the-park drive I took:

Yes, that's snow on the road.

Oh hey there

Buddy!

This dirt road is serious. I also hit 80 mph on it somewhere.

That is one buffalo buffalo. He didn't even look up in the way of my presence. Too busy being huge and eating grass.

More buddies!

Sweet view from a wooden bridge on a dirt road in a state park. Just before the steepest and tallest dirt road I've ever tackled.

It was so windy here. I was legitimately afraid of having my car flipped over. 

Badass, huh?

Well, after meandering, I made my way up through Wyoming, making this post from a rest stop on I-90 west with my phone's 3G connection. Sick.

Next stop from here is... Sheridan WY to go to a brewery that I've heard excellent things about (Blacktooth). Then I'm gonna figure out whether there's any camping/touristy things in the Billings, Montana area. If there are and weather permits, I'll do that. If not, it's over to yellowstone, grand teton national park, and jackson, WY, where I hope to be for 4 days to a week. Here's hoping the weather doesn't destroy me like it did in SD.

See you on the road,

Skwar