We spent a night in a hotel, and on the second day of driving passed through Sturgis and Rapid City. Arriving in the Badlands of South Dakota we found the hot dry air we’d been longing for, and set up camp in the primitive (and free!) Sage Creek Campground.
There were no trees in the campground itself, but the covered picnic tables provided much needed shade.
It was amazingly hot and dry with a stiff breeze, so as much as we were sweating, it evaporated almost immediately. Since there are no spigots at this campground, it is definitely a place to make sure you bring plenty of water with you. In contrast to the daytime temperatures, the nights cooled off substantially, requiring that we change from shorts to pants and add a jacket in the evening.
After getting our campsite set up, we took a drive through part of the park. The first wildlife we saw here was a small prairie dog town on the fringes of the campground when we arrived, and we found another one just a few minutes down the road.
The second prairie dog town had an extra treat for us – our second burrowing owl sighting!
There was also a herd of bison off in the distance.
We continued out of the park into the town of Wall to get supplies.
Having seen countless billboards advertising Wall Drug, we had to check it out since it was just around the corner. It is sort of a drug store-turned- shopping mall, offering novelties and restaurants… not really our kind of pastime, so we stayed just long enough to see what it was. We got supplies at the Wall Food Center grocery store down the street and headed back to the park.
A group of bighorn sheep made an appearance, with a few young, and one individual with a radio collar.
This one youngster I found particularly cute while he goofed around, and then ran off to catch up with his mother.
From there we went back to the campsite to settle in and relax.
Just before dusk we heard a pack of coyotes howling and carrying on nearby, in the direction of the creek. They did this each night we were there, and it lasted for up to a half hour!
Later on, the guy in the site across from us made an announcement that he had a telescope set up with the moon in focus, and anyone who wanted to take a look could come over. So we went to have a look, and were able to see amazing detail. While chatting he told us he’s writing the second edition to a book he had published on beginner’s astronomy, and the pictures he’d get on this trip were specifically for the second book. He then brought Saturn and its rings into view, also awesome to see. He and his son were going to be there for a few nights, and each night he invited fellow campers over to his telescope. We went over each night to look and listen as he shared interesting bits of information about the subject. In addition, the stars here were bright and numerous, and one night we saw several shooting stars – just spectacular!
For our second day, we decided to go see Mt. Rushmore, which is about 80 miles away from our campground. We took our time walking through the museum reading about how the whole thing took place – how it was carved, the difficulties encountered along the way, the number of people involved in the process, and the maintenance it requires. The project was a huge undertaking, and very interesting.
Finishing at Mt. Rushmore, we made our way back to the Badlands and took a drive along the scenic Highway 240 Badlands Loop Road in the North Unit of the park before heading back to camp for the night.
Each morning upon waking here in the Badlands, we found our bedding in heaps at our feet. We had thrown the covers off in our sleep while the sunshine heated up our tent like an oven! It was actually quite refreshing to wake up wanting to get out of the tent… rather than clinging for dear life to our sleeping bags in an effort to retain every possible shred of warmth for fear of freezing solid. We were once again in the hot dry air and loving it!
On our third day, we went to check out a portion of road within the park – Sheep Mountain Road – which is marked as requiring a high-clearance vehicle. It’s a rather long stretch of road, the beginning of which is smooth sailing, but quickly becomes impassible for regular vehicles before coming to a dead end several miles in.
Due to its rugged out-of-the-way location, we didn’t encounter anyone else after the rough portion began. There were some pretty awesome views along the way, including the storm rolling in off in the distance.
We went back to the campsite briefly, and then drove over to the White River Visitor Center, which was well worth the drive. They have a ton of things on display with an equal amount of truly fascinating information. There were mounted animals, examples of traditional Indian calendars (where each year is not named numerically, but is instead represented by a symbol depicting an important event which had taken place that year), and various parts of bison which had been crafted into useful items – even the testicles! Nothing was wasted! Sadly, I had left the camera in the Jeep, but we spent over an hour there looking around, reading about the history of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, and chatting with the friendly staff.
Back at the campground, we happily discovered that the rain never came! We went about enjoying our last night there, under patchy clouds which eventually broke up to let the stars shine down on us. Not one single night here was spent huddled in the Jeep trying to stay warm and dry while relaxing before bedtime. This is exactly how it should be, and it doesn’t get much better than that!
I have divided up the photos into four albums, one for each day, to make them easier to browse.
Leaving Yellowstone, Drive to South Dakota
Badlands Day 1
Badlands Day 2: Mt. Rushmore; Highway 240 Badlands Loop Road
Badlands Day 3, Sheep Mountain Road
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