11 Aug, Friday
Yankton, SD to Wall, SD
The next day, we packed up and headed back down SD-47 to I-90 and Wall, SD. Though we had been to Wall Drug several times, we were excited about this stop because it was our first time staying overnight. As expected, we saw the Wall Drug signs and billboards along the way, but we really enjoyed the Firehouse Brewery billboards, which also had a vintage fire truck next to them. The other competing signs included Reptile Gardens billboards and the Lincoln Borglum Museum signs on the side of semi-trailers. We were also surprised by the number of sunflower fields we found along the way. We saw what appeared to be a motorcycle accident surrounded by ambulances and police cars, so we looked up the “Sturgis Rally Tally” report from the South Dakota Highway Patrol and read about the various motorcycle accidents that had happened so far since we were in the final weekend of the rally.
Sleepy Hollow Campground
We arrived at the Sleepy Hollow Campground and RV Park around lunchtime. After getting past the rough road at their entrance, we checked in at the front office and set up camp at Site #2. It was a large campground with some small shade trees and all sites were pull-thru. The grass had not been mowed in a while.
Wall Drug
The campground was only a five-minute walk from Wall Drug, so we rode our bikes over to Wall Drug after eating lunch at the camper to explore. There were a lot of motorcycles on the street since the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was still taking place. We locked our bikes at a bike rack and first walked over to their restaurant. We both ordered an ice-cold Bud Light in a frosty glass mug, and I also got a free donut for being a veteran. We then walked through all the departments and their “backyard” to see and take silly photographs with all the various photo ops they had scattered around.
After we left the store, we walked around the other stores on Main Street before we returned to our bikes and rode over to the 40-foot Jackalope statue at the Dahl’s Chainsaw Art studio a couple of streets away. I climbed the stairway inside the statue, which was fun.
Badlands National Park – Sunset
We returned to our camper to eat dinner before heading into the Badlands National Park to enjoy the sunset at the Pinnacles Overlook. The outlook was only 30 minutes from the campground, and we got there a couple of hours early, so we decided to drive around the park for a little while. We headed west down Rim Road, where we saw some mountain goats and some Prairie Dogs at Robert’s Prairie Dog Town. We turned around at the Sage Creek Basin Overlook and returned to the overlook after about an hour.
The sunset was nice but not as spectacular as I expected. Someone else commented that “it was not the most beautiful sunset they had seen but the foreground was spectacular.” On the way out of the park, we passed a small herd of Bison by the gate.
We tried to stop by the Wall Drug Soda Fountain for some ice cream, but they were closed. Instead, we went to the local Dairy Queen and bought some blizzards to return to the camper.
12 Aug, Saturday
Badlands National Park – Sunrise
We woke up early to watch the sunrise at the park’s east entrance, which was about 45 minutes away. When we arrived, we had to drive through some Bighorn Sheep at the gate to get to the Big Badlands Overlook,k which was already well-lit with twilight. There were a couple dozen people already there. When we walked out on the boardwalk, we were immediately attacked by swarms of biting flies. Luckily, we had been warned about this the night before, and we had worn long pants and sweat jackets that covered most of our bodies. We had also put on bug spray, but that did not seem to deter the flies as they found ways to bite us. We saw many people in short sleeves and shorts who were obviously uncomfortable. We stayed until the sun rose over the horizon, though. Because everything was already so lit, it did not make a dramatic change, though we could see a little more shadow.
Badlands Ranch Store
On our way back to the camper to take showers, we stopped at the Badlands Ranch Store to take a picture of a giant 12-foot, 6-ton prairie dog statue at its entrance. On the side of the store was an actual prairie dog colony. You could buy a bag of peanuts for $1 and feed the prairie dogs during its open hours. The massive pink and ocher mascot to the colony below has been watching over this little Badlands corner for over 50 years.
Breakfast at Wall Drug
We continued back to the camper, and after showers, we drove over to Wall Drug for breakfast. Lisa ordered the Biscuits and Gravy Special with a side of scrambled eggs, and I got the “All American Breakfast” with eggs, sausage, and toast. I also got another free donut from them. Because I was a veteran, I also got free coffee but had to pay a nickel for Lisa. Though the line was extended to order the food, it moved quickly, and it did not take long for us to get it. After breakfast, I bought a Badlands National Park magnet for our camper refrigerator. We almost got a cuddly stuffed bison for Lisa, but we discovered it was a puppet, so we did not get it.
Minuteman Missle National Historic Site Delta-9 Missile Silo
We then got some gas and headed over to the Minuteman Missle National Historic Site Delta-9 Missile Silo. As soon as we got to the parking lot, several mounted riders drove a herd of cows to a new pasture. Here we were in the western plains, watching a real cattle drive. So cool!
The site featured the ground level of a launch facility and missile silo. From 1963 until the early 1990s, the missile silo at Delta-09 contained a fully operational Minuteman Missile bearing a 1.2-megaton nuclear warhead. It was one of 150 spread across western South Dakota. The launch facility consists of a silo 12 feet in diameter and 80 feet deep made of reinforced concrete with a steel-plate liner. The door to the silo has been welded and fitted with a glass roof, and an unarmed missile is placed inside. Various support structures surrounded the silo. An interpretive sign explained all the structures.
Minuteman Missle National Historic Site Visitor Center
We then continued down I-90 to the Minuteman Missle National Historic Site Visitor Center. Here, we got our NPS passport stamped and walked through the exhibits, which gave an overview of the nuclear missile as a weapon for defense and displayed how various home front responses during the Cold War, such as drills and bomb shelters.
One of the site’s main attractions is the guided tour of the Launch Control Facility Dellta-01, but unfortunately, this tour is small and fills up quickly. Luckily, we could attend a virtual walk-thru where a Ranger, a retired middleman, took us through a slide show of the facility and discussed how they operated. We enjoyed everything and learned a lot.
Badlands National Park
We then headed down SD-240, which took us back to the eastern entrance of the Badlands National Park. We followed the 39-mile scenic loop through the park and stopped at various outlooks. We walked portions of the shorter trails, such as the Door Trail, Castle Trail, Notch Trail, and the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail.
Ben Riefel Visitor Center
We stopped at the Ben Riefel Visitor Center, where we got our passport stamped, watched a 20-minute film, walked through their nature displays, and visited the fossil preparation lab.
Sage Creek Drive
We continued along the SD-240 Scenic Loop until we reached the Pinnacle Outlook, where we continued west on gravel Rim Road. We saw some of the same sites from the previous night, such as the Roberts Prairie Dog Town. As we continued on Sage Creek Road, we had to wait 20 minutes for a flag man to follow my truck to allow us to continue. While we waited, we could also see a storm brewing in the southwest.
We mainly saw rolling prairie lands as we continued west on Sage Creek Road. We passed through the ghost town of Scenic, which looked like an old western town whose buildings had been repurposed. We did not see any buildings that were still in use, though.
Sheep Mountain Table Road
South of Scenic, we continued into the south unit of the Badlands National Park, located within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as established in 1889. In 1942, the War Department took 341,725 acres from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to establish the Aerial Gunnery Range (Bombing Range) for training during World War II. In 1968, the Air Force declared this land excess and returned the land to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, but it had to allow the NPS to manage it in 1972 to retain it.
We continued down an appropriately named Bombing Range Road to the Sheep Mountain Table Road. This 5-mile one-lane gravel road took us to the top of the Sheep Mountain Table to the highest area in the park at nearly 3,300 feet above sea level. Here, we got an incredible view of a badland’s canyon.
Buffalo Gap National Grassland
We then returned to scenic and drove SD-44 through the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, where we saw a few badlands, a lot of range land, and even some bison. We drove back into the Badlands NPS through the interior entrance and returned to our campground at the northeast entrance.
Wall Drug Soda Fountain
When we returned to Wall, we stopped at the Wall Drug Soda fountain, where I got a root beer float and another free donut, and Lisa got a cup of ice cream. Afterward, we finished our ice cream and returned to the camper.
13 Aug, Sunday
National Grasslands Visitor Center
After breakfast in the camper, I drove the truck over to a gas station for gas and to try to scrape the bugs off of the windshield. On the way back, I stopped at Wall Drug to get another free donut and I bought a chocolate frosted one. I brought both back to the camper to share with Lisa.
After eating the donuts and packing most of the camper, we drove back into Wall to visit the National Grasslands Visitor Center. The main Visitor Center building was closed for renovation, but they had a small mobile trailer next to it with a couple of small exhibits and a video about the black-footed ferret. We watched the video which explained how the black-footed ferret, which ate prairie dogs, was thought extinct until some were found in the town of Meeteetse, The film showed the struggles of the conservationists as they tried to save this last colony and reintroduce the animal in other parts of the country. They were perilously close to losing the colony several times because of disease but successfully reintroduced them in several parts of the country, though they are still very endangered.
When we returned to the camper around 1100, we finished packing and headed west on I-90 to Custer, SD.