TRIP, TREATS AND HILL CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA

July 08, 2017

TRIP, TREATS AND HILL CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA

Another spectacular morning greeted us today. Slightly cooler but crystal clear skies.
We left a little bit earlier today, around 7, and made really good time for our first 200 miles. That is when everything changed!Shortly after noon, we crossed the time line and all of a sudden we were 2 hours behind the east coast and it was noon again. We passed into South Dakota and what had been pretty flat farmland was replaced by the splendor of the plains of the Dakotas. The road got a bit more windy and there was a bit more up and down. The big change was on the horizon as we started to see the shapes of the buttes of the Badlands. Our hard stop for the afternoon was Badlands National Badlands National Park is in southwestern South Dakota. It is 242,756 acres of protected land. It is a combination of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires and is the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in America. We did see a couple of mountain goats and a bunch of prairie dogs but I understand that later in the heat of the day you are not liable to see much wildlife. No problem because the park itself is awesome!
After driving the circular road through the park, we ended up in Luck. Really, Wall, South Dakota. If you drive route 95 you know of the hundreds of signs for "South of the Border" well, Wall Drugs is the South Dakota answer for that. Signs promising everything from free ice water to leather goods greet you for at least 150 miles before you get to Wall. It is everything you would expect from a tourist destination. A main street full of stores and shops and The Wall Drug Store where there is everything from jewelry to boots and hats drugs to a chapel. There was a Harley store on the main street so we scored another chip.
After Wall, it was an hour or so to our home for the next two nights, Hill City. We are about 15 miles from Mount Rushmore. That's out destination tomorrow morning.