Black Hills
From the Oregon Trail, I went up through the Black Hills to Deadwood. I saw the Crazy Horse monument but couldn't be bothered to take a picture.
It was cold and rainy the day I drove through, which stymied the hiking I was going to do, but it gave the whole area a hauntingly beautiful quality.
Made it to Deadwood. It's corny, and touristy, and filled with depressing casinos, and even knowing that beforehand, I was still surprised by the extent of it.
Went to Mount Moriah cemetery where some hoopleheads are buried.
Most cemeteries are named Mount Something Or Other, like Mount Pleasant or Mount Hope, but they're no more mountains than I am. Mount Moriah is actually a mountain though, and you can climb it so I did.
When I got back into town, I was famished. I ate at Saloon No. 10, which is where Bill Hickok was shot. I had a salad and a water, just like a real rootin' tootin' outlaw.
Wall, SD
It was absolutely necessary that I stop at Wall Drug.
I can see the appeal. It's quirky. It's huge. Good art. Good food. This dinosaur.
I tried their famous buffalo burger. It tasted like a normal hamburger but with more guilt.
Got a homemade donut too. I'm biased, but it was almost as good as the donuts back in Ann Arbor.
I got done at Wall Drug pretty early but too late to go to Badlands or do anything else. This whole trip and everything leading up to it was a flurry of activity. For the first time in probably over a month, I felt bored. I almost forgot what that felt like. I caught up on laundry and walked around town.
I saw the big dinosaur.
And this divinely blessed gas station.
It's crazy how big Wall Drug is and how little else there is in the town. And it all started because they offered free water to people driving by. Really feels like they built something from nothing.
Badlands National Park
Saw some more bison and prairie dogs on the way into Badlands. And later on, some more bighorn sheep. The plains look utterly barren, but they're teeming with life.
I stopped at a few of the overlooks on the long road through the park.
And after about an hour of driving, I made it to the trails. I did two hikes. The first was Notch, which was actually pretty tough. It had this long ladder, and some dicey cliffs, but it was a fun time wandering through the craggy labyrinth.
It also had these weirdly straight lines that cut through the topology, like someone took a giant knife and cut through the terrain.
The second hike was Door. It was just a nice little romp through the landscape.
Then finally the Big Badlands Overlook, which I should've waited for the clouds to pass to take a picture of.
Corn Palace
Yep. It's a corn palace.
Sioux Falls, SD
I only spent one night in Sioux Falls, but I really liked the vibe of this city. Nice downtown with good restaurants, and it was really buzzing. This is Falls Park which is a series of waterfalls that run right through the city.
And that wraps up South Dakota. I mainly went up this way because I've already done an I-80 road trip. Even though this state reminded me what it was like to be bored, I was continually impressed by how much was made with so little. The people and wildlife of South Dakota really found a way to squeeze blood from a stone.