At this point in our journey, I had repacked and rearranged the van's trunk SO MANY TIMES that I was confident that I have the best arrangement. It only took 1.5 weeks and 8 tries, right? I'm ready for the next trip for sure.
On our last morning in Glacier, we packed up and got on the road. We were driving east through Montana and and planning to stop somewhere in South Dakota for the night. More cities with hotels seemed to exist in South Dakota than in Big Sky Country. Devils Tower was nearby so we detoured over. It added an extra hour to the trip, but on a 60 hours-in-the-car journey what's an additional hour?!
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Devils Tower, WY
We arrived after the Visitor's Center closed so we wrote in the stop in the girls' National Park Passport books. We'd do the same later in the trip for another location. |
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| Devils Tower is so small that Lola can hold it in her hands! :) |
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| We planned on stopping at Mt. Rushmore but the long line of cars ..... well, they weren't because of me. A picture suffices and so we wrote in, rather than stamped, the passport books again. |
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The plan was to travel to Wind Cave NP and the most efficient route was straight through Custer State Park. Custer has lots of bison (we were "been there, done that!" dismissive about bison at this point) and twisty-turvy roads. Additionally there were three single-lane tunnels that made me hyperventilate because they were so dangerous, people stopped their cars in the middle to take pictures, and no one could see if another vehicle was coming the other way.
I did not enjoy my Custer State Park experience, overall. |
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Wind Cave NP is one of the earlier national parks created and the first one for a cave.
I'm a Kentucky girl, and I'm telling you that Mammoth Cave is better. Hands down. |
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| Wind Cave had interesting boxwork features. It was a "dry cave" so most of our cave knowledge was useless -- no stalagmites or stalactites there. However, our Park Ranger was fantastic and we really enjoyed his stories of 27 years leading tours into Wind Cave. |
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| Back on the highway we were immersed in Wall Drug signs. So, yes, we stopped, shopped, and acquired ice cream. |
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| Requisite Jackalope picture |
Then it was time to get to the Badlands, find our campsite, and get situated. Driving through Badlands National Park at dusk was absolutely stunning. The sun hits the rocks in different ways and the color array -- red or orange or yellow or brown -- absolutely depended on the sun, rock, and shadow.
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| Exhibit A: morning sunrise |
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Exhibit B: same formation, 5 minutes later
Badlands is a photographer's dream space. |
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| Badlands at nightfall |
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| Badlands at nightfall |
No one was at the Badlands entrance gate to charge us or at the campground entrance gate to charge us, so we were remarkably under-informed about Badlands NP rules. Were there bears? Could we hang a clothesline? What time should we set out in the morning? Also, folks were clamoring all over the formations with no regard for staying on trail and we absolutely flipped out about it. Leave No Trace, for goodness' sake, and stay on trail!
As it turns out, you are actively encouraged to climb in any way you please on the formations. (Even so, we mostly stayed on designated trails because we're conformists.) No bears in Badlands but the trade-off was lots of heat and wind. Lots of heat and wind meant hardly any mosquitoes, though, and that seemed a reasonable exchange.
We allocated two nights and one day to the Badlands area.
Night #1: Arrive at campsite at 8:40 PM. Set-up camp in record time so that we could attend the Evening Ranger program at 9 PM. Watch the lightning storm in the distance and wonder whether that storm would reach the campground. Note to selves: "wow, it's so hot I don't want my sleeping bag!" and "wow, I really, really smell! Sorry, fellow tent compatriots!" and "wow, this place is really gorgeous."
Day: After another oatmeal breakfast, we rushed over to the Visitors Center which opened at 7 AM (the earliest of them all, for this trip). The Park Ranger gave us hiking advice -- try these places, get there now while it's not too hot -- and we did exactly as instructed. The terrain was breathtaking.
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| Lola is so tiny in comparison. |
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| We hiked three different trails and each one gave views like these. It was overwhelming. |
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| Stephanie kept comparing the formations to the Grand Canyon. |
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| On top of the world! |
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| The Badlands was Eric's favorite part of the trip. |
With 95+ degree days, no shade, and all the major hikes done by 10 AM, the Whomptons were at a loss of how to spend the remainder of the day. We did what any reasonable person would have done -- we became Junior Rangers at a ridiculous number of parks. Badlands, National Grasslands, and Minutemen Missile all had programs AND air conditioning, which was the perfect combination.
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Becoming Junior Rangers at Minutemen Missile NHS.
I had never been so depressed when completing a Junior Ranger booklet. After reading all the displays, I took my booklet back up to the front and apologized for not completing it and then the Ranger cajoled me back into it. But, really. It's not uplifting to complete a book about Doomsday events and I didn't enjoy making my own missile decorations.
The Doomsday Clock is now 2.5 minutes to midnight, y'all. Thank you, climate change and Donald Trump. |
Evening/Night #2: After hanging out at the Badlands Lodge, we made our way back to the campsite to make dinner. The sun was unbearable and relentless -- we hitched a tarp up to the campsite table area to make some shade -- and then watched as a lightning storm began in the distance again. The previous night's storm never reached us and, honestly, when you can see miles in any direction it's hard to estimate how far away something is. When the winds picked up, we packed up all the small items and took down our tarp sun shield; when we heard thunder, we all moved into the van and watched the storm roll in.
Not everyone took the same precautions, so the winds and rain caught many people unawares. The rain was unimpressive compared to the lightning and wind. Meals and dishes flew away -- it was funny and scary to watch that happen -- and our tent flattened against the onslaught of wind multiple times. Thankfully the tent poles did not break. The storm stayed directly above us for a long time and then the sun came out from one side.
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| The rainbow appeared to end at this mound. |
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And we could see the complete 180 degree other end of the rainbow too. And then the double rainbow!
The wind/rain combination meant that it rained sideways. If that individual had taken the picture from the passenger side of the car, he would have stayed completely dry. As it was, he was drenched. |
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| Then we got these mattamus clouds. Ruby (our resident cloud expert) was dumbstruck by them. Apparently they are signals of a tremendously powerful storm to come, not of one that has just passed. At this point in the storm, if we looked straight ahead or to the right, then we saw rain and rainbows; if we looked above or a little to the left, then we saw these mattamus clouds; if we looked far to the left, we saw the sunset. |
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Storm + Sunset
The Badlands look like they are on fire. |
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| Sunset during the storm |
After all that excitement, we evaluated the tents' status -- yep, water made its way inside of both -- and noted that the heat was returning. Krystal, Stephanie, and Samantha went to Ranger Larry's evening program (pictures from all of the National Parks, so cool!) and then everyone went to sleep for our last night in tents.
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| Sunrise at Badlands |
Everything was dry by the next morning, which was remarkable really, so we packed up and headed out. It was time to head home. Tina Kearney generously shared her home and hospitality with us in Lincoln, NE, and, the next day, we reached STL.
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