For our first day in South Dakota (Thursday Sept 26^th), we drove about an hour to Badlands National Park. We visited here in 2010, but like most National Parks, felt it was worth a return visit. Plus, they say it’s eroding about an inch each year, so those 14 inches could really make a difference in how everything looks!

Technically, there are Badlands in both North Dakota (T Roosevelt National Park) and South Dakota, but this park gets the official name. They are called “Badlands” because they are difficult to navigate and survive in; they were named by the Lakota people who called the area “mako sica” which translates to “bad lands”. It’s hard to imagine what people must have thought as they traversed from east to west hundreds of years ago…from the flat, rolling, grassy land to these crazy canyons and landforms. It is such an interesting park – full of incredible rock formations. They call it the “Land of Stone and Light”. There’s no doubt that light plays a huge role in how the park looks at any given time.

It’s mostly desert-like – brown, dry, cracked earth and very little green. It was a windy day, and the wind really sweeps through the open plains. We spent a couple of hours on the winding park road, stopping at the scenic overlooks to take in the landscape.

We stopped to eat our lunch at one of the picnic areas in the park, and continued on to the visitor center (we entered at the less-used west entrance, so the visitor center is at the opposite end of the park). There, we watched the film to learn a bit more about the land and the area’s history.

From the Badlands, it was a short drive to our next destination, the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. This area, as well as a few others in the Great Plains, was home to many missile silos during the cold war. The location made it easy to launch missiles over the North Pole to Russia – shorter to go over the top than to go around! A missile could reach targets in Russia in 30 minutes from these locations. We checked out the exhibits, but we didn’t have much time because we had reservations for 2pm for a tour of the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility. This facility was responsible for 10 missile silos and is where an actual launch would have been executed if ordered by the President. The site was decommissioned in the early ‘90s and is now open for limited tours. Getting tickets is not an easy task – they go on sale at midnight MST 90 days prior…so I was up super early back in late June to get two of the six spots on this tour (and there are only two tours per day this time of year…very limited availability!)

It was fascinating to see inside this facility, both the “topside” support building and the Launch Control Center, 31 feet underground. It’s basically just as it was when the Air Force moved out in 1991, and the Park Ranger did a fantastic job of explaining the equipment in the Control Center and how it would have been used by the two missileers on duty at all times. I was really impressed by all of the controls and redundancies they had in place to ensure no one person could go rogue – thankfully! So grateful we were able to get these tickets and see this incredible piece of history!

On our way back to the campground, we made a stop at Wall Drug. It’s a total tourist trap, but a must-see when in the area. We had visited in 2010, and it really hasn’t changed much at all! Coffee is still 5 cents a cup and the ice water is still free (two of the things they promote heavily in their many billboards along I-90).

Rapid City and the surrounding area are experiencing record heat during our time here – Thursday was in the mid-90s. I will say, it’s a dry heat…feels like Arizona or Vegas. But still just plain HOT. Not at all what I expected when we planned a trip for late September!

Friday morning was pretty quiet – we ran some errands and I spent some time revamping our travel plans for next week as we make our way back home; we decided our travel days were longer than we were comfortable with, so we’re stopping in some different places along the way.

After lunch, we headed Northwest to Spearfish Canyon, and boy am I glad we did! This canyon in the Black Hills is spectacular, and because it’s at a very high elevation (about a mile!), the foliage is at peak (plus the temperatures were a few degrees cooler – a definite plus!). The canyon walls are spectacular, and the mix of pine, spruce, aspen, birch, and oak trees makes it simply breathtaking…the mix of gold, yellow, and green was incredible. The 19-mile road through the canyon is a scenic byway, and it winds and curves along with Spearfish Creek. My photos can’t possibly fully represent the scenery and colors, but hopefully will give you a sense of this wonderful area of South Dakota.

We were back at the campground for dinner, and then ventured to Mount Rushmore for their “evening program”. We’ve visited Rushmore before, but haven’t seen it illuminated at night, so this was high on my list. We arrived after the sun had set, so we basically couldn’t see the presidents’ faces at all. At 8pm, there was a brief ranger talk about resiliency and how each of the four presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore had displayed resiliency in their lifetime, followed by a film that gave a brief history on Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt, and why they were selected to be immortalized in stone here in the Black Hills. After the film, Mount Rushmore is beautifully illuminated and the audience joins together in singing the National Anthem. It was a wonderfully moving & patriotic experience, one that every American should enjoy, especially in these divisive times.

Mount Rushmore looks incredible at night – we had a clear sky full of stars, and to see the magnificent sculpture all lit up against the night sky is so impressive.

Saturday morning, we headed South to Wind Cave National Park. There’s something about this park…we are just doomed in trying to see the actual cave. In 2010, we couldn’t get tickets for any of the tours…sold out! This visit, the elevator is under construction so there are no cave tours happening. Ugh. But we decided to go anyway and check out the visitor center. Fortunately, they do a really nice job of showing examples of the formations that are present within the cave, so we enjoyed learning more about what we would have seen! So that makes our third National Park on this trip, and our 24^th overall. Making good progress against the total of 63 parks…but still a few to go!

From there, we headed to one of our favorite places from our last visit, Custer State Park and the Sylvan Lake area. It’s a beautiful lake surrounded by massive rock formations and a wonderful trail. Unfortunately, a section of the trail was closed, but it was a beautiful hike on a gorgeous day (the lake is at a pretty high altitude, so it was a bit cooler than in Rapid City, and there was a nice breeze in some areas!)

Next on our list was a drive on Needles Highway, and through the famed “Needles Eye Tunnel”. It was just incredible to see these needle-like formations, complete with some eyes, and then to drive through this tight, one-way tunnel. Coming back through, however, was absolutely the highlight – we followed a bus through the tunnel and it seriously filled the entire tunnel – almost no space anywhere around it. I can’t even imagine being the driver and maneuvering so perfectly through that space. So cool!

And our last stop for the day was to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is the world’s largest mountain carving, and is considered the 8^th Wonder of the World in progress. It was started back in 1948, and it will be many more decades before it is completed. We visited in 2010, so we were interested to see the progress in 14 years. The memorial is being funded through donations and admission fees – no federal money has been accepted. In addition to the memorial sculpture, there is also a museum and university on the site, dedicated to preserving Native American history and educating the youth. We watched a fascinating film telling the story of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski who dedicated most of his life to this project, after being brought in by a Lakota chief. The sculptor’s grandchildren are actively working on the sculpture, and hopefully the family’s involvement will continue for many more generations.

On Sunday, we headed to Jewel Cave National Monument…since we couldn’t tour Wind Cave, we decided to visit here – even though it doesn’t have full “national park” status, it is still run by the park service. It’s one of the longest caves in the world, with over 200 miles currently mapped, but much more still to be discovered. We had a reservation for the “Discovery Tour” which is relatively short at just 30 minutes, but includes some of the highlights of the cave. Our ranger took us down an elevator to the “target room” where we saw dogtooth and nailhead spar, which are the features that resemble jewels and how the cave got its name.

From there, we headed back to Mount Rushmore to see it in the daylight. It is always such an impressive sight!

Washington – Birth; Jefferson – Expansion; Roosevelt – Development; Lincoln – Preservation

One of the roads leading into Mount Rushmore is the Iron Mountain Highway, and there are several tunnels along that road, one of which lines up perfectly with Mount Rushmore so that you see the sculpture as you come through the tunnel – so we went out through the tunnel and turned around to come back through and see that incredible view. The tunnel itself seemed huge after yesterday’s bus in the needles tunnel…

And that wrapped up our sightseeing time in South Dakota. There is so much to see and do in the Black Hills/Rapid City area – we easily could have spent another week here, but we’re so glad we had the chance to see so much and enjoy this beautiful area of the country. As they say on their license plates, “Great Faces. Great Places.”