Badlands

We continued our travels to Badlands National Park in South Dakota early in the morning with the remembrance of the Elk bugle call both that evening and early in the morning.  What a sound! Within two hours of leaving Colorado, we hit Wyoming then Nebraska two hours later. 

When we began driving through Badlands, it seemed to be deserted.  We even laughed together about being alone in another universe since the landscape was so different from anything we had seen in the past five months.  The land has sculpted itself over time.  Eighty-seven+ layers of strata with erosion changing the landscape annually.  It is recorded that approximately 1” is lost per year due to erosion meaning the Badlands will disappear in 500,000 years. The different hues of red, brown, grey and white was breathtaking. Whereas the Rocky Mountains were pushed up from below, the Badlands started as a plain which has been eroded away by rain and rivers over time… it’s somewhat the inverse of a mountain range…

We turned a corner to get to the Sage Creek Campground and to our great surprise twenty + campers were parked in a circle like a wagon wheel! Where’d they all come from??  We chose to park a little off their path in the mud, among the prairie dog homes and enjoyed walking the hills.  The next morning, I took the pups for their wake up walk and buffalo were chewing grass next to the campers. The buffalo were equal in size to some of the campers!

We drove to the Ben Eisen Visitor Center in the park.  It has a working fossil lab with fossil exhibits. The geologic deposits contain one of the world’s richest fossil beds.  The 244,000-acre park has a lot to explore. I love fossils so it was a pretty cool experience. It was named the Badlands by the Lakota for its harsh winters, summer heat and the jagged canyons making it hard to survive in.  

We had planned on taking a hike in which you had to climb a rope ladder to complete.  There seemed to be too many people on it so we decided to drive down double track Trail Rd.  We looked up the trail rating and it was a 4.5!  Our best was a 2 so far. It didn’t seem so bad at first but after eight miles things got a little hairy.  There was slick mud off the path and lots of soft areas. We chose to turn around and come back the same way we came in.  Alas, we fell off the path and got stuck, having to use spade and the recovery boards that had been strapped up on top of the camper with our antlers. It was a fun and learning experience with little down time, if a little dirty!

It was early evening and we went to the high “wall” to camp.  It separates the high northern prairie from the low prairie to the south.  As sunset came, the dramatic drop-off and unique multi-colored sedimentary striations took on a life of their own.  There were many people camped along this boondock site and it was a beautiful night. 

When we woke up in the morning, there were clouds lower than us blocking our view but beautiful in its own way. We were heading to Mount Rushmore, but first needed gas which we could get at the small town of Wall. On the way in, we passed a gazillion (or so it seemed) billboard signs saying visit Wall Drug downtown.  We decided to check out the little town and it’s ‘pharmacy’ – and it was  pretty amazing.  A pharmacist and his family had moved there in 1931 looking for a good place to raise their family.  After no business for a few years his wife put up signs (or primitive billboards) on the nearby ‘highway’ offering free ice water.  Hot and thirsty motorists flocked in and it changed their business model and they now employ over 200 (what seem happy) workers. As touristy as it was it was a great stop and good story.

We drove on to Mt. Rushmore where all the state flags are flown at the base. We then drove over to Crazy Horse Memorial.  I had been wanting to go there for a long time.  This carving had started in 1948.  The unfinished mountain carving honors the Lakota culture and history.  It depicts the Lakota warrior Crazy Horse who defeated Custer at the Little Big Horn battle.  The museum inside the center was informative.  We also listened to a talk by a Lakota woman and watched her daughter jingle dance.  I learned that the different tribes liked to be referred to by their tribe names and not as Native Americans.  Interesting thoughts.   If you want to learn more about the Crazy Horse memorial go to http://crazyhorsememorial.org.   We did not go to the base or up to the top due to construction.

We left and drove to a boondock site in the Black Hills National Forest.  iOverlander is a great app to find camping, water, mechanics and dump sites. We have used it many times with great luck. It was another beautiful night and dark sky.

We had to drive through another part of the Badlands Park the next day.  Again, another surreal landscape.  We arrived in Chamberlain South Dakota. This is the home of the Dignity of Earth and Sky sculpture and the Lewis & Clark Welcome Center.  It is a 50’ tall stainless-steel sculpture weighing twelve tons. To see how the statue was created, go here: https://www.lampherestudio.com/dignity  

It was also interesting to learn about the Lewis & Clark expedition and we decided the next part of our journey would be to follow the trail along the Missouri river back to it’s confluence with the Mississippi in St. Louis…

We camped along the Missouri River south of the sculpture and enjoyed the night sky once again.  There were meteor showers and the milky way but not a lot of boat traffic. The next night we found a USACOE -free campground along the Missouri in New Castle, Nebraska.  We flew the drone and enjoyed watching a loooooong barge go upriver.

Drove, drove, drove along lots of back roads trying to keep the river in sight and made it to St. Louis, Missouri.  We wanted to check out the Golden Arch National Park in downtown.  It’s a 630’ ride up the arch in a five-person pod.  It was an interesting diversion.  The city itself seemed very sad and unused.  There was no one walking around downtown and so many buildings were boarded up. We high tailed it out of there.

We made it to Bowling Green, Kentucky to stay with my best friend of 45 years, Beth from Auburn University.    It was great hanging out with her and eating our way through the town.  Moonpie and Happi were happy to have her pup to play with too.

We headed east again and found ourselves at the same campsite we had stayed at on our second night on the road.  Harvest Hosts is a website where people offer their land for you to stay on for free.  They gave us a fresh dozen of eggs from their chickens and we enjoyed their goats and cows in the pasture playing.

We had a tour set up the next day at a camper manufacturer – Storyteller Overland.  WOW.  What a set-up and what a dream.  These guys have been building campers for a few years and they had quite the production assembly.  Who knew the cost of truck campers?  Not me.  It was very informative of what I did and didn’t know.  I love their product. Go to https://www.storytelleroverland.com/pages/gxv-hilt to learn more.

We stopped through Dalton, GA and visited with my step-daughter Chantelle.  It is always a pleasure to see her.  We parked in Parksite Lake Campground that night in the Cherokee National Forest.  There are so many great places to camp!

Drove in to Asheville the next day – crazy enough it was the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene.  We were seeking out the downtown and art to support the community.  It wasn’t meant to be. We drove out and detoured around the Blue Ridge Parkway since parts of it were closed still. The roads are windy, narrow and curvy.  Our day was turned around when we drove up a five-mile gravel road to the Unaki Mountain Overlook to camp.

We arrived at this scenic overlook admiring the different hues of blue over the mountain sides. No one was there when we arrived.  One hour later many cars drove up to watch the spectacular sunset.  We met a sherriff’s deputy and his wife and he took a great picture of our camper.  During the night it was windy – the camper shook till the early morning hours.  We woke up to clouds surrounding us with no view but as we drove down the other side of the mountain it was completely clear and sunny.  How strange.

We are nearly done with this trip… but we’ll take in Overland Expo East in Arrington, VA – a grand gathering of overlanding campers and exhibitors with informational talks then head towards Altanta so I can attend a concert I’ve had booked for nearly a year – Ludovico Einaudi – and then home, after five and a half months and 20,000 miles on the road. It’s been quite the trip! We’ll do a round up once we get home.