Monday 31 August 2015
Another good nights sleep in Custer! Today, our plan included the Northern Black Hills, the town of Wall, the Badlands and a long drive to Sioux Falls.
After breakfast, no biscuits and gravy either, we loaded up the car and were on the road just after nine. Our route, initially, was the same as yesterday morning, North up the route 385. This time we continued on to Hill City, another gold mining town and then on the route 16 to Rapid City. The roads all wound around through the hills and forests of the Black Hills. Rapid City is quite a large place, population 55,000 and is the biggest town in western South Dakota.
From here, we joined our favourite Interstate, the I-90 heading east. This road is flanked by prairie most of the way to Wall, about 50 miles from Rapid City.
Wall would be a pretty non-descript town were it not for the fact it is the western end of the Badlands NP and the existence of Wall Drug Store. The drugstore has been open since 1934 and is still owned and run by the same family. It is has a huge eclectic collection of goods for sale, from tourist kitsch to expensive hand-tooled cowboy boots. It also has a selection of 'attractions' on offer, including a performing Dinosaur head, a giant Jackalope, shooting gallery, gold panning and a variety of restaurants and bars. It's even more famous for its advertising hoardings spread all over the USA. We saw some in Wyoming and Nebraska hundreds of miles away. I've previously seen them in Colorado.
The other thing you see on a road trip are the huge variety of home-grown roadside attractions. Reptile parks, gold panning, helicopter rides, Indian crafts, Dinosaur, car, tractor and military museums, all of which claim to be world famous, or the largest. It must be fun for kids!
Back on the road, we left Wall and headed down route 240, the Badlands Loop Rd. This takes you to the entrance to Badlands NP. With our annual pass in hand, we were waived straight through the ranger station.
This 34 mile long road goes through a jumbled mass of canyons, gulches, mountains and plains. It is totally inhospitable and mainly dry. It is rattlesnake country. Badlands is an appropriate name. At the same time, it is a dramatically beautiful and strangely attractive place. We stopped several times for photos as we drove along the road.
At the far end of the loop at Cactus Flat, we rejoined the I-90. From here, we knew we has a drive of 271 miles to Sioux Falls in eastern South Dakota. With that in mind, we accelerated to 75mph, engaged cruise control and sat back for the ride.
The Interstate passes through endless prairie and farm land. It's mainly beef cattle and cereal production. Some would find it very boring as much of it was flat too, but there was something to be said for the huge views to the horizon. There are few towns of note, but several try their best with enticements like, 'See Elvis Presley's motorbike', or 'The best Tractor Museum you'll ever see', 'Film props from Dancing with Wolves' and suchlike. We only stopped once for a comfort break!
Sioux Falls is a large city and our hotel, the Holiday Inn, is right in the heart of the downtown area. We are on the 7th floor with a view from our balcony down Philips Street. We walked into the middle of the restaurant district on Philips and ate at Minerva, a somewhat upmarket restaurant to us after several weeks in the back of beyond! The food and service was good and we escaped with a bill of just over $50 plus 20% tip of course.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment