Finding America

Day 77 Thursday

Pulled out of the Rushmore KOA around 8:30. The morning was crisp and clear morning and the drive up to the monument was really nice.

Check out the video of our Rushmore adventure below.

The drive down from Rushmore was really steep and with Kodi in tow we kept the Fox in 2nd gear most of the way. By the time we got to Rapid City the brakes on the trailer were not happy with us and the brake controller needed a little readjusting.

We caught Hwy 44 from town and started heading east into the Badlands region of South Dakota. It was not very scenic in the common meaning of the word, but it was definitely memorable for its remoteness and its inhabitable nature.

A few farmers managed to run cattle on this land and the along the road we could see hundreds of prairie dogs. They were really funny standing there like little sentries until we approached and then barking and zipping to their dens. It would have been cool to watch from helicopter as the wave of fleeing rodents streamed from the road and towards safety.

The Badlands’ topography was reminiscent of Bryce Canyon in Utah with all the hoodoos and carved sandstone landscape. We were lucky to find a nice place to grab some lunch near the park’s eastern boundary. We stopped again on top of the plateau which overlooks Cedar Creek Lodge for a few photos and some more video and then we were on our way again.

We joined up with Hwy 90 and continued on with a quick fuel stop in 1880 Town. About 5 hours later we limped into our RV park. We stopped over for the night in Sioux Falls and treated ourselves to a night out at a delicious Indian restaurant.

We didn’t have any trouble sleeping!!!