Badlands National Park

We woke around 5 am at the Spearfish Super 8, did a few German lessons on Duolingo and then went to the motel lobby for breakfast. We were pleased that the motel had cold cereals, yogurt, Belgian waffles and other choices. However, an older couple (our age) had their dog in the dining area. This was clearly not a trained service animal since the animal was annoying other guests. I eventually asked the owners to control their dog, which they did for a while before they left. I was surprised that the motel would permit the dog in an area where food is served, so I wrote to the motel manager with my concerns.

We were on the road by 6:30 heading toward Mount Rushmore National Monument. The drive to the park was through an area that was obviously very targeted toward tourists. Rapid City has statues of presidents positioned throughout the tourist areas. From Rapid City we drove through Keystone which was an old mining town in the 1800s. Like so many other historic Western towns, all of the old buildings have been torn down and new buildings are in their place that have fronts looking like old buildings. They contain T-shirt shops, souvenir stores and restaurants with catchy names.

We were at Mount Rushmore when it opened at 8 am and parked in the nearby garage. Our National Park Senior Pass was not checked and there did not appear to be a fee for entry. However, parking was $10 for passenger cars, but we got the senior price of $5. There were some visitors at the park, but it was not crowded at all.

Mary got the stamp for the site in her National Park Passport, and we took a few pictures and walked around the grounds. We read a lot of the signage and history of the granite carvings, but nothing has really changed since we were here with the kids. I dropped a few postcards to family in the mailbox at the visitor center to receive a special Mount Rushmore postmark.

From Mount Rushmore we drove about an hour to the Badlands National Park. The $25 entry fee was covered by our National Park Senior Pass, and we began our drive through the park. The 30 mile road through the park parallels I-90. Like other national parks, there were numerous turnouts with interpretive signage. We stopped at most turnouts and read the information. A few stops have short trails out to viewing areas. At one of our first stops, two female bighorn sheep were grazing near the parking area. We were impressed by the stark beauty of the landscape.

As we continued around the drive we saw interpretive displays on fossils found in the area. We also saw two adult male Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep that were grazing not far from the road. These animals are clearly accustomed to visitors as they didn’t seem to notice us taking photographs.

We left the park around 11:30 and had our peanut butter and crackers lunch as we drove east on I-90. We took advantage of the 80 mph speed limits in South Dakota since there wasn’t much traffic. We stopped at a few rest areas to stretch as we made our way east. We crossed the time zone not long after getting back on I-90, which cost us an hour. We arrived in Sioux Falls, SD around 5:30 and picked up I-29 south toward Sioux City, Iowa. We were happy that gasoline prices were back down below $3/gallon in eastern South Dakota. We filled up in Sioux City and picked up dinner from McDonalds to take to the motel.

The Super 8 in Sioux City appeared to be fine and, at $70, the price was right. We brought a few things up to the room and turned in. We want to get a good rest then leave early tomorrow hoping to get home in Georgetown before too late on Friday night.