Badlands National Park

Planning a trip takes a lot of time and effort. My general rule is that it takes as much time to plan a trip as it does to take it. For a six-week journey, like when we travelled to Alaska and back, it took six weeks of research to create the perfect itinerary. I have a particular goal in mind. This could be a specific attraction or event. For the Alaska trip, it was a one-day cruise in the ocean to see a glacier. Planning Alaska was more straightforward than most trips since the main goal was to get as much distance as possible and see as much of Canada and the USA in my time frame. And like every other voyage into the country, I like to have something to see every two hours. This breaks up the trip. Stopping even for a quick photo opportunity makes a long drive seem shorter.

On August 4, 2023, we woke up in Rapid City, South Dakota. This city is worth exploring because of its history and surroundings. I had planned two days in this area and enjoyed every minute. South Dakota is a beautiful, scenic state, and I cannot wait for the next opportunity to revisit it. I originally planned on seeing two museums before heading home. I also planned on sleeping in.

On rare days, I have a scheduled sleep-in day, and I have places we can visit if we fail to get that extra slumber. I call these “alternates” and keep them in mind when I am in an area. The one alternate I had for this day was Dinosaur Park. Built in 1936, the park sits atop a hill and offers a view of the city. And because it was built in 1936, how people visualized dinosaurs then vastly differs from what we think of dinosaurs now. I expected it to be a bit corny, and it was. Still, climbing up the hill is a great way to see something of historic value and get some exercise.

Like all travel plans, sometimes things do not go as planned. I intended to see a museum with dinosaurs, but construction at the location made it difficult to find parking and to enter the museum. I decided to skip it. Because I elected not to visit this attraction, I had to skip the next one because it did not open until after we left the first one. This day was mainly about making distance. I had things to break up that distance and decided to head towards those.

As we were driving, we kept seeing signs for Wall Drug. To say there were an excessive number of signs would be an understatement. Charlene looked up what Wall Drug was, and it was rather interesting. Wall Drug is a drug store in the tiny town of Wall, SD. During a time when there was no such thing as air conditioners in cars, they offered free, ice-cold water to weary travellers. It was a great gimmick to get people to come in and visit. It was very successful, and this tiny drug store in a tiny town grew into its own tourist attraction. We toured at this unexpected stop and were impressed.

While there, I saw stickers for Badlands National Park. I was dumbfounded. Was this the Badlands? The very Badlands that I have always wanted to see? How on earth did I miss this location during my planning stage?

In a state of near hyperventilation and panic, I stumbled with my phone to see where Badlands was located. How did I not know this? We are so close to it right now!

I almost wanted to end our tour of Wall, Wall Drug, and all the tourist traps it offered and head immediately to Badlands National Park. Despite the higher-than-expected entry fee, we were still making this detour. I began to appreciate that construction stopped us from seeing a museum back in Rapid City.

The detour was not long. There was a small queue of cars at the gate, and they got through quickly. I approached the park ranger, ready to pay my dues, and discovered this was one of those free days. I was ecstatic! I was going to see the Badlands and see it for free. In categorizing places, I have low, medium and high-value distinctions for destinations. Badlands is in the rarest of categories of Top Priority.

We started our tour by stopping at a prairie dog town. We then turned around to see the parts of the Badlands that attract most travellers. We got out, someone took our picture, and we started to head back to the car. A situation was unfolding at our car that we had no idea was happening when we were admiring the views; a bison decided to come to a puddle to drink.

I found lots of information about the safe distance from an animal during my research. For this bison, we were well within its range of “attack zone.” The general rule is to be 100 metres from bison. To measure this distance, extend your arm and see if your thumb covers the bison. If not, you are too close and need to back away slowly. Bison will attack tourists when they get too close. This particular bison approached us. It knew we were there and chose to get this close to us. Thinking this, I did not want to make a dash for the car, nor did I want to start to drive away because my car is a hybrid; it has a screaming angel sound when it is in electric mode, and the last thing I wanted was to have a bison charge my car. We just stood there and waited.

Cool, though, but I was holding my breath.

We would spend over two hours at this unplanned location. We could have spent all day. I was tempted to follow some of the trails they led off the road into the various features and explore this place. There are plenty of rattlesnake warnings, but I was willing to ignore this just to experience the Badlands in much greater depth.

I love exploring badlands. They get their name because the land is too bad for farming, yet they are stunning and fun to visit. When the kids were much younger, I would take them to see the Cheltenham Badlands. We would run up and down each part of it, observing the subtle changes to the shape and size after each rain. Now, entry into Cheltenham Badlands is forbidden. All you can do there now is just look at it.

We stopped at Badlands Ranch Store, where they have a place to feed the prairie dogs. With this, our detour into the Badlands of South Dakota was finished, and we continued on our way. The one location I was heading for would be closed by the time we got there, but there was a rest stop that we had to see because of a large statue—Dignity of Earth and Sky.

Since our plan for the day was so vastly different from the original plan, I had enough time to visit one place I had initially decided not to include—Corn Palace. Located in Mitchell, SD, it is The World’s Only Corn Palace. This location is open late because it is a community centre as well as a showcase for corn. Each year, they change the theme of what is portrayed on the sides and inside the building. They use every part of the corn to make pictures. This is an incredible display of talent and skill. It is unique in the world and worth stopping. I am glad we had time to visit it and not skip it like we had planned.