This is trip 15, in 2015! We arrived in Phoenix (AZ) on March 25th and traveled North and East, taking in Jerome, Mogollon Rim, Zuni (NM), El Morro, Farmington, Durango (CO), Ridgway, Black Canyon NP, Breckenridge and Golden. Moving North from there we have been to Fort Collins, Laramie (WY), Cheyenne, Fort Laramie, Chadron (NE), and on to Custer (SD) to explore The Black Hills, as far North as Devil's Tower (WY). From there we have driven East to Dreadwood,then on to pickup our mail in Box Elder before exploring The Badlands NP. We have been to the capital Pierre (SD Capital), before driving North up the Missouri to Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota. We have finished towing by driving via Fargo and Sauk Centre to Minneapolis, where we will clean and store the rig, ready for us when we return for Trip 16 in the Fall (DV). On this trip we have towed the trailer just over 2800 miles.
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Thursday, May 28, 2015

The Badlands NP in South Dakota

Tuesday
At the entrance to the Badlands lies Wall, a town which has not raison d'etre for it's existence except for the famous drug store - Wall Drug, so of course we had to stop there to investigate it.
It is a very nice story. Back in 1929 a pharmacist and his wife felt it right to open a drug store in Wall, even though it was a dying community. They gave themselves five years to make a go of it. No chance. In the summer of their last year the wife put a notice out on the highway to offer free ice water. Tourists visiting the places to the West stopped off for the free water and the rest is history. Unfortunately, in the inimitable style of the Americans the place now resembles the Main Street of Disneyland - all just gift shops.
Anyway it had to be done!
The Famous Wall Drug in Wall
From there we drove into the Badlands NP. This, we realised, is the last of the 'Big Desert Parks' that we shall see as we move East, not knowing if we will ever get back West again. So we were determined to enjoy it, which we did.
It is about a 25 mile drive through the park, with lots of stops for the overviews, so we made quite slow progress, in fact it took us most of the day to arrive at the Cedar Lodge Campground, where we were surprised to find that there was a walk in site available,with lovely views of The Badlands.
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In the evening I went for a run up into the rocky area, along Saddle and Castle Trail, which was fun. I got back in time to take a couple of sunset pics, though there wasn't a lot of sun in them.
The weather has now, finally, warmed up.

Wednesday
Although it is warm, the sun is still not shining through. I got up early to take some sunrise pics (5.30!), but it was mostly cloudy, still there were some bright spots.
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We planned to drive about 120 miles today to Pierre, however a lot of the road was on I90, with its speed limit of 80 m.p.h. so we took some time to visit the Fossil Trail, which, rather disappointingly was a boardwalk with just information about fossils, no actual fossils in the rocks there. Still it gave us a last look at The Badlands.
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I even managed to take a video of the drive from the Fossil Trail to the Campground, which, while not as boring as the train passing by at Fort Laramie, is probably only of interest if you want to see lots of rocks and hear our idle banter in the van.

The weather took a hand again: Since sunrise we were watching a large rain cloud on the Wunderground.com radar, which was sitting to the East of us for several hours as we packed up left the campground, that was OK, except as we left it started to move North East, so as we hit the I90 and moved east it crossed us and we were in rain. We drove through and out the other side, just in time to turn North to Pierre and catch it as it continued North East. We drove through it again and reached the Farm Lake SP at Pierre, just in time for the rain cloud to catch up with us. So still not much luck with the weather, but at least it is now warm.
The campground here is very nice though and we are looking forward to better weather.

3 comments:

  1. AMERICAN ADVENTURESMay 28, 2015 at 9:49 AM

    Oh yes the famous Wall Drug - what can I say! Good to see the Badlands again - when we were there it was unbearable heat. So pleased you have finally found some warmer weather!

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  2. fastrakMay 28, 2015 at 1:19 PM

    Thanks for your comments, love to get them. The unbearabIe heat comment kind of puts our current weather in perspective. Guess this is the last of the BIG PARKS, I explained to Sally that their is almost a sense of bereavement that we may never see them again. Had the same thought when we crossed the Continental Divide and then came into Central Time Zone.

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    1. AMERICAN ADVENTURESMay 28, 2015 at 2:16 PM

      Oh dont!!!!! I cannot bear to think of never going back east again, to Michigan or New England or Blue Ridge or alligators or or or ...... AND the thought of never seeing my beloved West - well I'll think about it tomorrow - I can stand it then!
      PS did I tell you we are going to Guernsey next week just for an overnight stay while we are down visiting Roy's daughter.

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