Bad Weather in the Badlands
Day 1 - Arriving in Rapid City and visiting Mount Rushmore
It was an early day at the airport with a connecting flight at the very chaotic Chicago O'Hare airport. We arrived in Rapid City by 11:30am. Cody requested an all-wheel-drive, mid-size SUV since snow was in the forecast. Snow this time of year is atypical even for South Dakota. The typical temperatures are in the 40-60F’s. On this trip, we saw that there was going to be a mix of rain and snow, with temperatures in the 20’s to low 30’s. Cody and I prefer to travel during the shoulder season to avoid crowds and higher travel costs, but there’s always the risk of less than ideal weather changing your itinerary. The risk is still worth it to us, and we’ve had some fun experiences exploring new areas when things don’t go to plan!
At the rental car parking lot, we were met with a large SUV, a three-row grey Chevy Traverse. Cody immediately started comparing it to our new minivan, "a minivan is so much better," "these three-row seats are hard to get into and even if you fold them there isn’t as much space... and it's at least as expensive!" It made us appreciate our Bertha even more (blue Honda Odyssey).
After what already felt like a long day of travel, we decided to be fairly relaxed in our sightseeing. Before heading to Mount Rushmore, we stopped for lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Jamaican restaurant. I had rice and beans, cabbage and chicken curry. Cody had a stewed pork dish with white rice. It was tasty and filling comfort food.
With the colder weather, Mount Rushmore looked extra magical with the hillside sprinkled in white snow. However, the trails were closed due to icy conditions. We took our pictures, then headed to the visitor's center/ gift shop to get our pressed penny, magnets, and cancellation stamps. As we left, we took the scenic Iron Mountain Road to get back to the city. It is a winding road through the forest with a few one-lane tunnels and wooden bridges. We were excited to see a few bison along the way, grazing right by the road. The end of the road is near Custer State Park, and there we were greeted by at least 15 bison blocking the road! Most of the bison were eating grass, scratching themselves on wooden posts, but a couple seemed to be staring us down! At one point there was a bison only a few feet away staring at Cody through the driver-side window! It was a bit scary! We waited about 10 minutes before the road started to clear, and we crept slowly through the herd.
We went to the grocery store before checking into our Airbnb. It was an interesting abode. The exterior was an unassuming small, white house, however once you entered it was decorated like an ultimate bachelor’s pad. The walls were painted dark, illuminated by LED lighting. The bathroom and kitchen both had golden fixtures and black counters, and the shower had dual shower heads with a backlit onyx stone wall. Personally, it was not my taste, however, it definitely had a style. We were tired from the long day and promptly in bed by 8pm.
Day 2 - A snowy attempt of Custer State Park and Wind Cave
Custer State Park was about an hour away from where we were staying. Today we had some light rain and snow, with morning temperatures in the high 20's. We had hoped to hike 7 miles on the Black Elk trail, seeing the smaller Devils Tower on the way to the peak, but with the weather conditions and lack of appropriate gear (no spikes or hiking poles), we decided it wouldn't be the best decision. It is a beautiful park, and I tried to walk around the foggy, yet majestic appearing Sylvan Lake with Cody; however, after about 10 minutes, I was freezing and turned back toward the car. Cody went on a quick jog without me, up Trail #4, while I stayed in the comfort of the vehicle working on my knitting project.
Here's Cody's perspective on his quick jaunt in the woods:
There isn’t much to tell. I didn’t want Alex waiting in the car too long, so I told her I’d be back in about 30 minutes. She wasn’t allowed to worry unless I was gone longer than an hour (there was zero cell service). I started up Trail #4 with no real goals other than I just wanted to see what the trail was like. They were snow-covered, but I’m not pregnant and in general I’m fairly comfortable with snowy conditions on this type of trail. I quickly picked my pace up to a jog, so I could cover as much ground as possible in the time that I had. After about a half-mile through the woods, I came to a small parking lot and a sign that said “1.5 miles to Little Devil’s Tower”. That meant it would have been over 4.5 miles (with 800’ elevation gain) for me to get there and back within an hour. Not happening! With hindsight, I wish I would have known about the parking lot to begin with. I would have been able to make it to Little Devil’s Tower and back if I only had to cover 3 miles, even with all the elevation gain. As it was, visibility was pretty poor and I couldn’t see much of the surrounding terrain. However, any time you get to spend in snowcovered woods is a treat. It’s so quiet and peaceful! I hope we get to come back some day and do this hike. It looks beautiful in the pictures, even if I couldn’t see any of it today! I ended up covering about 2.5 miles in about 33 minutes. Not a great pace on a normal day, but good enough considering the snow, rocky terrain, and picture taking.
After this, we went on a scenic drive through Needles Highway. It's pretty amazing, winding through rocky spires, one-laned tunnels, and snow covered pine trees. There was also a lot of wildlife to be seen including bison and deer.
We arrived at Wind Cave later in the morning. We figured a cave tour would be a perfect activity to do on a day like this. We could be in the underground comforts of a constant 50 degree Fahrenheit cave! Wind Cave is the 6th longest cave in the world, 3rd longest in the United States. It is one of the most complex mapped cave systems, so you can only explore the cave with a ranger-guided tour. Fortunately, we were able to nab tickets for the 1:30 pm Fairgrounds tour, as they were soon to sell out. We had some time before the tour began, so we went to the nearby town of Hot Springs for lunch. You can't go wrong with Mexican food, advertised by a giant billboard topped with a bull wearing a pink sombrero.
I haven't been in many caves, but found myself comparing Wind Cave to Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico. We took an elevator 200 feet into the ground. Before we even started the tour, a couple decided to bail and took the elevator back to the surface with the ranger (our assumption was the man felt very claustrophobic). The passage ways were more narrow and we had to duck down in some areas of the tour. Unlike Carlsbad, Wind Cave is a dry cave. There were no stalagmites or stalactites to be seen. Instead, there was an intricate formation of boxwork on the ceiling, formed by a combination of limestone and gypsum, resembling the middle of corrugated cardboard. 95% of the world’s discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave. We also saw frostwork, small calcite crystals that form when water tries to enter the cave.
When we headed back to town, we stopped at a store so I could get long underwear! Cody made us dinner at the Airbnb, a nice change from eating out.
Day 3 - Badlands National Park
We truly picked the worst days in April this year for outdoor activities, but we continued on! Today we went to Badlands National Park. Again, it was a cold mix of snow and rain. It was a 1.5 hour drive out to this park from Rapid City. As we drove there, we passed by grassy plains with cattle huddled up in the lower lying areas to shield themselves from the inclement weather. When we got to the park, we decided to try to hike the Medicine Root and Castle trails.
Our hike started out pretty windy with a slight drizzle, but the trail seemed doable. The first mile was okay, but by mile two, we gave up hopes of keeping our feet dry and trudged through ankle deep muddy waters. Our shoes got caked more and more with mud, adding an extra five pounds per shoe! We did achieve our goal of not falling on our asses though!
The next couple of miles, we were slipping and sliding with every step. The badlands are made of high clay content material and it forms a very slimy, slippery mud when it gets wet. We tried to avoid some of this by hiking in the adjacent tall grasses, avoiding stepping on small cacti, prairie dog holes and animal feces. Fortunately, we did not see any snakes! It was both physically and mentally taxing as we made slow and careful progress. Even though I was mostly looking at the ground, it was still very cool to get up close to the formations of the badlands. There were similarities with Bryce Canyon, as we saw the terrain in different stages of erosion.
Cody was apologizing to me for the trail conditions as we trekked forward (pregnant women are not supposed to fall!), but we both decided to do it, at no fault of his! It wasn't that awful, as it was type 2, borderline type 3 fun. We avoided the more technical trails, including rope ladders and steep drop offs, which I would have definitely vetoed! We both like to hike to take in our surroundings, and although a scenic drive is nice, it wasn't the way either of us wanted to experience our short time in the badlands. On our drive back, Cody commented "The Badlands lived up to their name today... they were bad!" We drove through the park to get to our next destination. It was interesting to see yet more bison, and also there was an area where the badlands had more colorful striations of yellow and red that was striking to see.
There's not much to do in the surrounding towns, but we were recommended to check out Wall Drug Store on our way out of town, described as a "tourist trap, but a fun one!" Per Google reviews, people can stay hours here! We didn't end up staying long, but got lunch at their cafe. It was quiet when we arrived, being the off season, but the cafe can seat up to 530 people! Wall Drug Store advertises their "free ice water" and "5 cent coffee." Cody had a hot roast beef sandwich, and I had a fish sandwich. I got a pressed penny, and we also bought a piece of fudge to share later on.
When we got back to town, we went to Armadillo's for ice cream. I had a dirt cup sundae (chocolate ice cream, crushed Oreos, whipped topping, and gummy worms). Cody had the "tiger," a concoction of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, caramel sauce, Reese's pieces in a waffle cone. As we enjoyed our sundaes, we thought about our plans for the next day. Initially, we were hoping to go back to Custer State Park, but it didn't seem like the weather was going to get any better. The roads leading to the park would also likely be closed due to the snow. Cody proposed a grand plan; this involved driving to North Dakota to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park, then driving west into Wyoming to see Devils Tower National Monument, and possibly heading through Deadwood, South Dakota on our way back to Rapid City. It was a lot to do in one day, but we decided to go for it.
Day 4 - An ambitious day, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the geographic center of the United States and Devils Tower
In order to have a chance of packing in all of our planned activities for the day, we started our drive at 5am. It was a quiet drive, and again very majestic, passing by plains of roaming sheep, frolicking antelope, and grazing cattle. It seemed like a semi-domesticated scene from the Lion King! Cody laughed at my excitement about seeing sheep. I've never seen hundreds of sheep running through an open plain, but it was something Cody had experienced growing up in the country. He was excited about seeing the antelope though!
Right outside the park, we stopped at The Raven Brew, a small coffee shop that had been converted from a tattoo parlor only a few months ago. I had a latte and breakfast burrito, and Cody had tea and biscuits and gravy. It was very good!
The layout of Theodore Roosevelt National Park is vast. There's the southern and northern units. The Painted Canyon trail is right outside of the southern unit. As it was off season, the gates to the trail were closed, and we were a bit disappointed at first. We went to the southern unit visitor center, where I asked them about the trail closure. Fortunately, the ranger told us we could park outside the gates and walk through the pedestrian entrance! We headed back, reassured that our vehicle wouldn't get ticketed or towed. It was a short hike, but as my pregnancy progresses, any sort of elevation loss/ gain is getting more challenging to hike. The trail had a lot of bison feces and their huge footprints made the terrain uneven. I'm still glad that we did this and were up close to the beautiful striated mounds of the badlands. Also, it was very peaceful, as we were the only people on the trail!
Some people say there's not much difference between Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the Badlands. Cody and I would disagree. There were more grassy fields and trees compared to what we saw in the Badlands, and there seemed to be more signs of life. Again, we felt like we were watching scenes from a nature documentary, standing on a ridge overlooking a bison herd crossing the Little Missouri River, prairie dogs, turkeys, and even wild horses roaming freely in their natural habitat. We wish we could have spent more time here and hope to visit the northern unit some day, but we were in a time crunch! Cody says he can see why Teddy Roosevelt enjoyed spending so much time here. We stopped briefly for lunch and were off toward Wyoming.
On the way to see Devils Tower in Wyoming, we decided to take a short detour to the geographic center of the United States. The actual center is located on private land that took us 20 miles down a dirt road. You would think that people would be lining up in droves to be here, but again, we were the only ones. There was a small unassuming gate with a makeshift sign confirming our location. We walked about 100 feet into a field before stopping at an American flag with a small 3 inch diameter medallion on the ground, denoting “center.” After a few pictures, we were on the road again!
Approaching Devils Tower is a bit eerie and a little hard to describe. The surrounding landscape isn’t necessarily flat, but a 867 foot formation with such a small footprint feels like it looms over the terrain. Devil’s tower is hardened crystalline rock that likely formed when magma made its way into the ground, but never made it all the way to the surface. Over time, the magma cooled and the softer layers of earth above it eroded away, exposing the formation we know today as Devil’s Tower. The rocky columns are a unique feature, and many people come here to climb the spires (although many of the routes were currently closed due to peregrine nesting season). We took an easy, quiet walk on the paved trail around the base.
We decided to head back to Rapid City after this. We initially thought we might stop in Deadwood along the way, but we’re both not that interested in old Western films. Also, it was getting late in the day and figured most places would be closed. We arrived back home around 9pm. We stopped at Taco John’s for dinner, as we had read overall good reviews about this fast food establishment, specifically their “potato oles,” seasoned tater tot rounds. The food was fine, but not worth any hype. And, this completed our 17 hour odyssey gallivanting across 3 states, 650 miles of driving, and 11 hours in the car!
Day 5 - Travel home
The morning of our last day was sunny and in the 50’s, the first day of seemingly good weather! We decided to walk downtown for coffee and tea. We passed by some of the life-sized, bronze statues of our past presidents that are on the street corners here. On our walk back from the coffee shop, as a final “screw you” from Rapid City, we were hit by wind and hail! Fortunately, it was just a short walk back to the Airbnb.
Even though the weather conditions were not ideal this week for outdoor activities, Cody and I had a great time. It led us toward some unexpected adventures and funny memories. I don’t think we would have otherwise taken the time to drive to the geographic center of the United States. We got to see Mount Rushmore, sprinkled in snow. And, we had a muddy, sloppy trek in the Badlands. Hopefully we can return in the future with good weather!
