Month: September 2023

Our last night on the wall, we had some nice evening skies. However it did get cloudy so no stargazing.

We then managed to get moved and set up in our next campground yesterday before the drizzle and clouds moved in. Our park in the National Forest is moving into off season mode already! This means they close everything except one loop and shut off all water. Their fee structure also changes so it’s only supposed to cost us $10/night. That is if they get their pay envelopes in place. One of the campground hosts told us last year the envelopes didn’t show up until October! We’ll see tonight.

We headed up towards the northern part of South Dakota on a scenic drive today. After a quick drive through the historic town of Deadwood, we headed up the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Drive. We plan to return to Deadwood tomorrow to explore the history there!

The canyon, while it does have some high walls, is covered with a lot of forest, resulting in a less dramatic drive. The waterfalls along the way were the more interesting sights.

One of the highlights today was at Bridal Veil Falls were we got to see multiple mountain goats – including some mamas with their kids.

Paul was also lucky enough to see capture some pictures of a woodpecker along the trail.

I took pictures of some wild flowers that were still in full bloom! Most are past now.

Stay tuned – tomorrow will be about Deadwood and the town of Sturgis.

We woke this morning to a warmer than expected day. Eventually the strong winds we had overnight had calmed and it was a nice morning. The tent campers behind us had left sometime after dark – maybe due to the wind and rain! We didn’t get a lot of rain – everything around us was dry this morning, but the evidence of the trailer rocking in the wind was there – our blocks behind the wheels of the trailhead moved and they had been in solid!

After breakfast we headed out to the Badlands National Park. We had a sunny morning and the sun was on some of the hills. We still have a bit of smoke in the distance from the forest fires 🔥. The colours in the hills reflect the different types and hardness of the rock making up the hills.

We also saw a bit of wildlife. At Robert’s Prairie Dog Town, not only did we see lots of prairie dogs, but also a pronghorn, also known as an antelope.

Finally, after a quick stop at the visitor centre, we headed back to our trailer. We are camped at a place known as “The Wall”. Last night when we came back from visiting the nearby town of Wall, we counted more than 80 units along the approximately 9 km stretch of dispersed camping lands. The next picture is our view out our dining room window this morning! If it wasn’t cloudy tonight, it would also be an excellent Dark Sky location!

Tomorrow we plan to leave this area again and head back to the Black Hills for a couple more days.