The Badlands & The Black Hills
I cannot put into words how excited we were to leave our campsite in Mitchell. After going to church in the morning, we hit the road, eager to put a lot of distance between us and the KOA. The Great Plains were indeed great - in those two days I really got a feel for just how big the United States is. We passed across the Missouri River, and the topography was completely different. The everlasting plains jumped up, and we were in the midst of tall, rolling hills. Before we knew it, the rolling hills had eroded into the Badlands.
They were GIGANTIC! We were in awe; something so big and, and yet so unique! By far one of my favorite parts of the trip. And I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.
Isn't that just amazing? It was so awe-inspiring.
Anyways, the Badlands really dried us out, and we were hot and sweaty despite the air conditioning in the car, so we started to drive away. Our next destination was Wall Drug, the famed giver of free ice water.
There's a story behind that. Wall Drug was a teeny little drug store in the miniscule town of Wall, and it really wasn't making it at all. They barely had any customers, so they started brainstorming ways to attract people. They thought up a great idea: people coming through from the Badlands and Mt Rushmore would be hot, sweaty, and thirsty. What would feel amazing for those tourists would be ice water! So the owners of Wall Drug set up a ton of signs advertising their water, so that people would come for the water, and while they were there, convince themselves to buy other things. Thus, Wall Drug became a huge business, and unfortunately, a tourist trap. Though it was cheesy, we had to go see it, just to say that we did.
In the store, they had many different stores, so we walked into a few of those. We went in the Black Hills Gold store, and I got a super pretty ring! We glanced at the knife store, and I got a cool little knife for only about 5 dollars! Don't worry - I only carve sticks! ;) We got their ice water and a few doughnuts, and went on our way.
We stopped at a McDonalds for dinner (it's fast and it's cheap, no complaining there!) and grabbed a few groceries at Walmart, and kept on going. As we drove along, the Black Hills loomed closer and closer, turning from faint outlines to dark, towering hills. We drove through them at sunset, so everything was just perfectly gorgeous and beautiful and there was the perfect light cast on the hills, and I was just enchanted. We found our campsite, and it was a far cry from the previous night - it was not a KOA, there were tons of trees, and it was peaceful and beautiful. We took a short hike down a little trail behind our campsite, and then turned in for the night.
*NEXT DAY*
Imagine waking up to a quiet forest and the giggling sounds of a small stream. This was the world I woke up into in the Black Hills.
Ok, I'm sorry, I just HATED the KOA and I'm in love with any campsite that is in a forest. But the bathrooms were AMAZING. Not kidding.
The great thing about our campsite that night was that it wasn't far at all from Mt Rushmore, so we got ready and drove over. We got there just as the sun was coming up, so their faces were lit up with a slightly orange tinge, and they had the sun full in their faces. Literally.
After that, we drove back to our campsite and packed up. Then we left, stopping briefly to take a walk around Sylvan Lake. And then we drove, and drove, and drove - we did a lot of that this trip - until finally, after stopping to eat AGAIN at McDonalds, we arrived at our KOA (eep!) In Cody, Wyoming.
For those of you who don't know (which, considering the population and popularity of Wyoming, is probably not a lot), Cody, WY is the rodeo capital of the world, so of course we had to go see the rodeo. However, when we arrived, we found out that it would cost 90 dollars for all of us to get in, we changed our minds, hoping that we weren't missing much. We also would have been pretty late.
So... we went to bed. I'm going to say that phrase a lot, but honestly, that's what we did. I can't think of a better phrase.
What did y'all think of the Badlands and the Black Hills?
~Catharine
