10 Aug, Thursday
The Journey from Yankton, NE to Fort Thompson, SD
We left Nebraska Tailwaters Campground near Yankton, NE, around noon, took SD-37 and SD-50 for 87 miles into South Dakota, and stopped in Mitchell to see the Corn Palace.
Corn Palace
We found a near-empty parking lot near the Palace, where we parked the truck and trailer and walked around admiring the Moorish Revival building’s “crop art” murals.
Left Tailrace Campground
After about a half hour, we continued down I-90 to Reliance. I would have liked to have stopped at the rest stop in Chamberlain along the way to get a close look at the giant sculpture called Dignity of Earth and Sky, a 50-foot-tall statue of a Native American woman, but the exit was closed for road construction.
We took SD-47 and arrived at the Left Tailrace Campground about 1700. This campground was a Corps of Engineers campground near Fort Thompson and sat just below the Big Bend Dam on the Missouri River. Big Bend Dam takes its name from the unique bend in the Missouri River seven miles upstream from the dam. At this point, Missouri makes almost a complete loop, traveling 25 miles before returning to the “neck,” where the land is only about one mile wide.
We had to get some fresh water at the dump station before we settled into our level, gravel, electric-only site. We had a beautiful, unobstructed waterfront site overlooking the Missouri River and the high, rolling bluffs on either side. After we set up camp, we just stayed at the campground for the evening.
11 Aug, Friday
The next day, we enjoyed the morning views of the lake and then, after stopping at the dump, headed west to Wall, SD, around 1100.