Into the Badlands

After our stop at the Dignity statue, we drove west two-plus hours on the arrow-straight and mostly flat Interstate 90. Driving into the park was a surprising and impressive change of scenery, where I remarked that it was like New Mexico’s “Bisti Badlands, but on steroids.” Badlands NP covers a lot more territory and has larger rock formations than Bisti, and is easier to access.

We arrived at our campground just on the outside of the park in the small town of Interior, South Dakota. It was late afternoon and the campground was hot, humid, and crowded with many folks in the area for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which still went on despite the Covid-19 pandemic. On the bright side, the sunset was spectacular.

Near the entrance to the park is a little place called the Badlands Ranch Store where you can buy peanuts and feed the nearby prairie dogs. I had never seen one up close, so that was kind of fun. We brought Koda out to see them too, but her presence put the prairie dogs on high alert. They were “barking” warnings out to each other. This made them not want to eat peanuts at all, which ruined it for the other visitors. The peanut-feasting restarted once Koda left the area.

Mornings and evenings would have been the best time for photos, but skies were a hazy dull gray and the sun was hidden behind clouds during the prime hours. The popular viewpoints for photos were very crowded with masses of people not wearing any form of PPE, so we did not want to hang around those too much.

Badlands NP is in the midst of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, a beautiful prairie area but tends to have high winds. Our first night was a test of how well the van would hold up in a rainstorm, as a storm came through the campground area with winds that shook the van and raindrops hitting the roof were loud enough to drown out conversation at times. No leaks, and all systems worked as they should. We were so happy to be able to sleep in air conditioning that night.

We took a couple side roads off of the main artery and found a few animals trying to avoid the crowds.

Leaving Badlands, we had to stop at the delightfully kitsch-ey Wall Drug for lunch. Their big draw back in the 1930’s was the offer of free ice water, a tradition they continue to this day.

We are planning on going back to this area, just not during bike week and when the weather is more comfortable.