Blog

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.

On Wednesday we headed back out for more sightseeing. Although we never did see much rain on Tuesday, it was a good day to get caught up on laundry and cooking. Unfortunately, we woke Wednesday to some smoke in the horizon from the forest fires up north.

We headed up the Needles Highway for some spectacular views. With a number of narrow tunnels (just over 8’ wide) as well as a few one lane bridges, it also has lots of hairpin turns! It was good that the tourist season is starting to slow down so the number of vehicles was certainly less than there would have been a month ago.

Our next stop was Mt. Rushmore. Here we stopped to see the 6 story high carving on the mountain face of 4 presidents – Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln.

We also stopped at Sylvan Lake which reminded us of the landscape found in Northern Ontario and the Canadian Shield.

Our trip out on Thursday was much shorter as we were checking out a location for camping next week. In this area of South Dakota, many of the National Forest campgrounds start to close down for the season on September 11th and those that do stay open, have water turned off and possibly only one loop open. we did find a location we think will work and will allow us to drive one last loop of the Black Hills.

Friday was a move day for us – over near the Badlands National Park. I’ll leave you with a teaser picture – here is our campsite for the next couple of nights – ours is the first trailer from the left! Tomorrow we hope to drive the loop road in Badlands.

Goodnight!