The Wild, The Weird and the Bad

It's been quite some time since I've been active on here! Our little family has gone through some major changes, including purchasing our forever home and adding a new member in March of 2018. This has kept us pretty much in place in Cape Breton with renovatons and a tiny human. I'm hoping our little family can get back to travelling, but  for now I want to go back about  a little over three years to continue sharing all of the wonderful places we visited on our 2016 road trip.

South Dakota was a state that far exceeded our expectations. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that already in my previous post, but today I have a lot more to share about the Mt Rushmore State.

While visiting Jewel Cave and Wind Cave we stayed in Custer, South Dakota as it was quite central to most of what we wanted to see while we were there, including Mt. Rushmore. To be honest, when we arrived in the state, Mt Rushmore was the lowest on my list of places to see. The only reason we decided to go was to say we visited and so that Halle could earn another Junior Ranger badge. When you approach the monument, you catch your first glimpse of the faces from the side, and from that moment I changed my tune and could not wait to get a better look. We ran into a little bit of attitude with a grumpy 4 year old when we parked, but after working things out we headed inside and made our way to the Ranger Station to collect Halle's Ranger booklet.

I must say that I was far more impressed than I had expected. When you stop to consider the work that was put in to create these faces and the lengths they had to go to, to complete the project it's hard to imagine what the site would have looked like as the carving was happening. 

We visited later in the day since South Dakota was extremely hot during our June visit. We were able to avoid the hottest (and probably busiest) time of day and we met a really great family who gave us some good tips about visiting the Badlands later on in our trip (we exchanged a few tips since they were headed the direction we had just come from). We got some great photos and I would've loved to stick around longer to see the studio that Gutzon Borglum worked from, but with two grouchy kids and all of us still feeling quite warm, our trip was short. That just gives us a good reason to return again one day.

One place in Custer I wish we had, had the chance to visit but didn't was Custer State Park. We heard a lot about it, and read a bit as well. Though we didn't drive through the park itself, we got a sneak peek of what it offers- especially those impressive rock outcroppings that are scattered throughout the Black Hills area of South Dakota. I know the next time we make it to South Dakota, we will most certainly make time to see Custer State Park.

Once we had stopped to see Mt. Rushmore, it was time to take in Badlands National Park. While we potentially could have made a day trip to the park from Custer we decided to include a little side trip into our adventure and camped in Wall, South Dakota for a few days. The town is not much to take in but has been made famous by Wall Drug, an outlandish store that became famous by it's signs advertising free ice water to parched drivers along the highways in the 1930's. Since then the store has grown into a mall/tourist attraction that draws some two million visitors to the area each year - quite a feat for a once tiny drug store "in the middle of nowhere".

Enjoying the famous free ice water & Halle driving the horse drawn carriage

Don't miss the donuts, made fresh throughout the day!

We had a lot of fun there and enjoyed some free ice water, 5 cent coffee and their delicious donuts. Halle had a chance to play in one of the arcades and we browsed through quite a few of the stores, my favourite being the bookstore that carried a lot of books based on the history of the area. I didn't pick up anything at the time (we had enough books in the trailer with us), but maybe on our return visit I'll pick up a few new reads for myself.

The 5 cent coffee is available on the honour system, drop your nickel in the box next to the machine!

Heading back to our campsite after exploring Wall Drug

Wall is the perfect spot to stay if you're planning to visit the Badlands. We stayed in a nice little park that allowed us to swim and do our laundry and the people who owned it were incredibly friendly. There weren't any places to camp close to Badlands (or in Badlands) that would allow us to plug our trailer in and have air conditioning on the hot days we were there, and that was why we decided to stay in Wall. This way the dogs would be comfortable in the trailer with AC and water while we explored the park (where dogs are not allowed on the trails with us). It was a good thing we had it, as the day we ventured to Badlands it was 40C/105F and there is no way we would've kept the dogs unattended in a vehicle in that type of weather.

With the heat during our visit, we didn't even take time to hike the trails in the Park but we drove the roads and stopped at as many viewpoints as we could. It is such an impressive park with a variety of landscapes and so much wildlife to experience.

When you arrive at the park it's impossible not be impressed by the staggering spires of colourful sediment, which contain one of the world's richest fossil beds. It blew my mind to stand amongst them and know that some 75 million years ago this was a large sea and is now home to bison, big horned sheep and rattlesnakes! 

I enjoyed seeing the different landscapes change from barren spires, reminescent of the Grand Canyon, and then the lush grasses bursting with beautiful yellow. It was like being in two totally different parks (and made for some pretty great photo opps!).  

 
We'll always recommend visiting Badlands National Park and South Dakota to anyone we talk to who is travelling. We hope to one day return to this spectacular part of the United States to see more of it, and actually hike some of the impressive trails at the park.
Have you been to South Dakota and Badlands Park? What are your favourite sites to visit? How about a state or attraction that took you completely by surprise? I always love new travel tips and places to see.