DAYLIGHT
FADING
We
resumed our journey on Monday with an early departure from Chicago. Well, that was the plan, anyway. Packing the car took some time, and we had
to make an early morning visit to the local grocery store. We left Kevin’s at 7am, which was entirely
too late to miss rush hour traffic. We
were heading out of town, but that didn’t matter. Traffic was moving at a crawl.
Eventually we discovered the major cause of the problem – A toll
booth. Once we passed it, we were able
to maintain the speed limit through the remainder of Illinois. I don’t mind paying a few bucks in tolls,
but I do mind waiting in line for an hour or more for the privilege. This is particularly true at the beginning
of a 14-hour drive.
The
drive through Wisconsin was uneventful, and even pleasant, at times. The eastern part of southern Minnesota,
particularly around the Mississippi River, wasn’t bad either. The rest of
Minnesota seemed to take forever though.
We finally crossed into South Dakota, and passed through Sioux Falls
right at rush hour. We hardly noticed
it though. We hadn’t seen much traffic
since somewhere in Wisconsin, and rush hour didn’t seem to make a difference.
We
did have an unusual experience on the highway just beyond Sioux Falls. A car pulled up alongside us, and the driver
began frantically waving his arms and gesturing towards the back of our
car. I looked in the side mirror and
saw…nothing. This was alarming, because
throughout the drive I’d been able to see one of the wheels of my mountain bike
in the mirror. Had we lost a
bike!?! I pulled onto the shoulder, and
Christy ran to the back of the car.
Both bikes were still there, but one of the attachments on the bike rack
had broken. My bike was only connected
to the car by a single attachment, and it had been bouncing around all over the
place.
What
to do? Putting the bikes inside wasn’t
an option. Ultimately we supplemented
the bike rack with straps and bungee cords and resumed the drive. I checked the mirrors frequently as we crossed
South Dakota. The bikes seemed
secure. We could only hope that they
would stay that way.
Originally
I had planned to swing through Badlands National Park on our way to Custer
State Park, in the Black Hills south of Rapid City. Our recreation options were limited in the national park because
of Saucony (dogs aren’t allowed on the trails), so a brief visit is all we
needed. Unfortunately, due to Chicago
traffic and technical difficulties, we were 2 hours behind schedule. We reached the exit for the Badlands at 8pm,
which gave us about 30 minutes of daylight to see the park. This seemed silly, but I had a National
Parks Pass, so it wouldn’t cost anything.
I figured we could at least manage a Clark Griswold visit.
We
drove the Park’s scenic loop road, and stopped at a couple of overlooks along
the way. The views were quite
impressive, even though we didn’t get much chance to properly appreciate
them. We did get to witness a colorful
sunset over the eroded hoodoos and wind-blown prairie though. My favorite overlook was probably Panorama
Point, which we reached as the last daylight was fading. Unfortunately it was completely dark by the
time we reached The Pinnacles. That
overlook is probably quite a sight during daylight. On the upside, driving past all those rock formations in the dark
was fascinating. After dark, the
Badlands were exciting and perhaps a bit spooky. I’d like to visit the park again when I have more time to enjoy
it.
We
left the park in the town of Wall, which is home to Wall Drug. We certainly didn’t visit Wall Drug, as it
is reputed to be one of the biggest tourist traps in the country. As I understand it, Wall Drug is to drug
stores as Cracker Barrel is to restaurants.
Basically, it’s just one big gift shop.
Instead, we stopped in town at the Red Rock Café. We chose the Red Rock Café because it was
10pm and it was just about the only restaurant open. Fortunately it worked out fine for us. We had decent cheeseburgers, which we didn’t have to wait long
for.
We
drove on from Wall to Rapid City, and then headed south to Custer State
Park. We couldn’t see much of the park
after dark, but we didn’t have any trouble finding the Game Lodge
campground. We had a site reserved,
and, after paying the $10 park entrance fee, we set up camp just before
midnight.
Back to South Dakota
Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports
Please remember to Leave No Trace!