SD/ND/MT/WY Thursday June 13, 2019

This morning we left Dallas at 7am and caught an 8:45 flight to Rapid City, South Dakota.  The flight was on a smaller and older plane but it was smooth and uneventful.  We were able to watch movies on the plane.  Ryan and Grant watched Forrest Gump and I watched the most recent How to Train Your Dragon movie. 

We arrived at 10am (because Rapid City is on Mountain Time), grabbed our Dodge Grand Caravan and drove into Rapid City to find a place to eat an early lunch – the airport is kind of on the outskirts of town. 

We had sandwiches and salads at the Great Harvest Bread Company.  Grant was in a terrible mood because he hates these trips but otherwise, the three of us were having fun and the weather was great.

We then headed towards Badlands National Park.  We drove in on Hwy 44 and it was strange because there was a Northern Unit entrance and a Southern Unit entrance and I had no idea which we were supposed to take but we stayed on the main highway which took us to the Northern Unit entrance (after waiting about 20 minutes for some road construction). 

We pulled into the Ben Reifel Visitor Center around 1:00 and got our stuff then headed a little bit northeast to Notch Trail.  

I’d read it was short but interested and it was.  There’s a 50+ rung wooden ladder you have to climb up at one point then you hike out to an overlook. We all had fun.  It was warm but overall, a very short 1.2-mile round trip hike.

From there we drove the scenic loop 240 out a western entrance of the park and immediately upon exiting the park, pulled the car over to look at buffalo and prairie dogs.  They were everywhere but you had to look closely because at first they just looked like rocks.

Just a few miles past the exit at the intersection of 240 and 90 was the town of Wall.  I’d heard of Wall Drug but not really.  It was like an old western town of gift shops all owned by Wall Drug.  Their claim to fame is they give out free ice water.  We opted for cokes, diet cokes, ice cream and root beer floats.

Then we drove through Rapid City to Keystone where we’re staying for the night.  After checking into the Baymont motel (it’s neat because it’s up on a hill and has a beautiful view including a view of Mount Rushmore) we walked down the steep hill to the main road and had a good dinner at Ruby House – kind of a big old western style house.  Dinner was a lot of fun.  We walked the streets of keystone for a short bit, Nick bought a hat, then we walked back to the motel, got in the car and drove to Mt. Rushmore. 

 It was so cool – no entrance fee – just pay $10 to park.  We arrived around 8:15 and took it all in then walked a loop-ish trail that took us closer to the monument.  Everything was beautiful and the weather was perfect.  We decided to hang around until 9 pm for the lighting ceremony so we hit the gift store, got some magnets and gummy worms then sat on a bench and relaxed.

At 9 pm a ranger came on over the loud speaker and gave a quick history of the four men in the monument then played the national anthem then lit up the monument.  There was big American flag that five random veterans from the crowd held then folded up together.  It was touching.

We drove back to the motel afterwards and it’s not 10:30 local time (11:30 Dallas time) and we’re all heading to bed.

What a great and eventful first day this has been!  36 parks down and 25 to go.