We left on Friday to head to South Dakota. We made it to Sioux Falls early on Saturday morning. I have not spent much time in Sioux Falls. It was nice. We went to see the “Arc of Dreams” and Falls State Park. South Dakota has a few natural places, but the state is good at creating road-side attractions (e.g. Corn Palace, Dignity, and Mount Rushmore) and we saw them all.
We made it to Mitchell early and checked-in at our KOA kamping kabin. We went to the Corn Palace. I saw there was a drive-in movie theater showing “Twister”, so we went there at 8 p.m. Well, it did not start until 20 minutes after dusk which turned out to be around 9:30 p.m. We waited there for about 90 minutes and asked for a refund right as the movie was starting. I forgot to see the Corn Palace at night.
On Sunday, we woke up really early and made it to the Badlands around 8:30 a.m. We entered Mountain time zone which helped. We stopped to see Dignity in Chamberlain. They were limiting people in the Minuteman Missile site. We were able to walk through the museum with two other people. We wear masks when going into buildings. I would say 50% of people do and almost no one wears them outside.
Afterwards, we stopped at the Ranch Store to feed the prairie dogs. In the Badlands, we hiked the Notch Trail which is somewhat challenging. It has a ladder and some steep/tight curves. It does have any railings. It was difficult and hot, but it was fun. We saw some bighorn sheep in the park too.
In Wall, we got a buffalo burger to eat outside and then, made our way to Rapid City. Our room was not ready, so we went to Mount Rushmore. The memorial is doing construction and getting ready for the President’s visit/fireworks, so we could not walk further than the start of the flags of the states. Afterwards, we drove down to Custer State Park and came back to our hotel.
It is our only hotel until we head home, so this might be the only post for the week as I will not have much internet access.