Badlands, Buffalo and an Ever-changing Landscape

We spent Wednesday night in Wall, SD, which gets its name for the buttes and spires that create a vertical barrier between the rolling landscape of central South Dakota farmland and Badlands National Park. After staring at the same scenery for 3.5 hours the brown and orange towering spires of the “wall” were a startling change to the landscape and gave us a preview of our trip into the park the next day. We spent the night at a small motel that was a mix of cabins and teepees on the outskirts of town. It was a great spot to stay the night before we officially ventured into the western part of the US.

We got up and out early on Thursday and drove the short five minute drive into Badlands National Park. It’s hard to put into words the shock and awe of coming up over a hill that has cow pastures on both sides and then seeing the crazy landscape of the Badlands stretched out in front of you. We immediately pulled into the first viewing point and walked down to take some pictures and get our bearings before heading further in to the park. Badlands is a free hike and free climb park, which means there are no roped off areas or signs saying “keep out” or “stay off”. We learned immediately that this meant we would spend parts of our day watching people do lots of stupid things, like climbing crumbly spires in flip flops or cowboy boots and dragging their screaming toddler up to the top of a butte without thinking through how to get them down. Thankfully, we only had to witness those moments when we were in the busier areas of the park at the beginning of the day.

Castle Trail in Badlands National Park, one mile into the hike

Castle Trail, Badlands National Park, eight miles into the hike

We spent the bulk of our time on the Castle Trail, a ten-mile out and back hike that wound through the buttes, spires and valleys of the southeast section of the park. For the entire hike the landscape changed back and forth between dry barren stretches surrounded by spires and buttes and then valleys of yellow wildflowers. At one point, we walked a mile through the yellow flowers and at times they were as tall as Jackson. The hike took us around four hours to complete. The kids did really well and at no point asked to stop or turn around. By the end we were all ready for it to be over, but also proud that we had completed such a long hike. The best part was that we only came across a dozen or so people on the trail so it was usually just the four of us as far as we could see in any direction. It was rarely quiet as Jackson probably talked for 8 of the 10 miles, but I’m pretty sure the noise probably kept some rattlesnakes away.

When we finished the hike we stuffed our stinky and sore selves into the car, stopped at the infamous Wall Drug for some milkshakes, and then headed to Keystone, our jumping off point for Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park the next day. It was a shorter drive (1:15) than what we had been doing most days so it went by quickly. We once again witnessed a complete change in landscape as we headed into the Black Hills. They reminded us a little of western North Carolina mountains, but with more rock outcrops and the darker green tone of the Ponderosa Pines that are the dominant tree in this area.

Mount Rushmore, view from the President’s Trail

Mount Rushmore, view from the Amphitheater

Friday morning we took our time getting up and ready as we were all a little sore from the day before. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore. We all agreed that it was smaller than we had expected, but still an impressive feat with the technology available from 1927-1941. 90% of the carving was done with dynamite and the remainder was done by workers suspended on the face of the rock wall using jackhammers. Jackson, our resident US History buff, especially enjoyed getting to see it in person.

We then headed west away from Mount Rushmore to take Needles Highway into Custer State Park. That highway may be the windiest mountain road I’ve ever been on and included three tunnels that went through the “needle” formations on the mountains and were only one car wide. You had to have a lot of trust in the other drivers on the road and it took over an hour to go twenty miles, but the views were spectacular. We finished our time in Custer State Park on the Wildlife Loop Road and got to see a few herds of buffalo, some of which were only ten yards from the car. After we left the park we had a four hour drive to Casper, Wyoming. We took it easy at the hotel there last night.

So far the trip has been a whirlwind as we have covered over 2000 miles in eight days. We are all having a great time and the kids haven’t expressed any regrets. They both miss our dog Scout, but we are getting regular updates on her adventures with my parents in Virginia. I may be jinxing this by even typing it out, but Ada and Jackson are great travelers. They get along really well and are genuinely trying to experience all the places we are visiting. They don’t see it as checking a destination off a list the way I think adults often do. We are also very lucky because they both have low thresholds for what brings them joy. A good burger, a hotel with a pool, or spotting an antelope in a field can bring a smile to their face. I don’t know that we would have taken this trip if that wasn’t the case. I’ve seen parents in some of the places we’ve been begging their kids to look up from their phone to enjoy the view or plying them with gift store purchases just so they will stop whining for a little while. Maybe I’m just catching those families in a bad moment, but it just seems like a miserable way to travel together.

We leave tomorrow (Sunday) morning for our six day camping and kayaking trip in Yellowstone and Grand Teton. We will be off the grid until Friday evening when we return to Jackson, WY. This is the part of our summer travels that all of us have been looking forward to the most and I hope it lives up to our expectations. This is also when we start to slow down and spend more time in the places we visit so it will be nice to not be spending 4 or 5 hours in the car most days. When we get back from the camping trip we head to Bozeman, MT for two nights and then on to Whitefish, MT to visit Glacier National Park and celebrate Canada Day and Independence Day.