Great Plains Road Trip Part 2

Monday May 13, 2019
Right at the stroke of midnight Amber and I were rudely awakened by bright flashes and the booming echo of thunder.  It was quite a surprise, as the weather had been perfect just a few hours before.  We lay in our tent watching the lightening, listening as the thunder got closer, and finally some high wind and rain arrived.  Thankfully, however, the main brunt of the storm missed us.

After the rest of the night being pretty sleepless, we arose and made breakfast while packing up our wet tent.  When we were all loaded up we headed south to reach Badlands National Park by the end of the day.  Along the way we stopped for groceries in Spearfish, SD, and made a quick stop at Walldrug, in Wall, SD.

The first NPS park site we came to as we neared the Badlands, was the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.  We viewed a replica of a missile in it's underground bunker (at a poorly signed interstate exit) and then later toured the visitor center.  Sadly, we didn't have enough time to schedule a tour of the command center a few miles nearby.

As we neared the entrance to Badlands National Park, Amber and I finally found a little "Tourist Trap" right outside the park entrance.  We had seen it in this video I have linked below.  Skip to about 4:00 in the video to see it.  It's a place where they let you feet a group of prairie dogs some peanuts.  You pay $1 for a small bag.


It was a pretty fun experience to do.  The prairie dogs were very hungry for us, and sadly we ran out of peanuts very quickly.

After our little dose of cuteness, we finally entered Badlands National Park.  We met a couple on their honeymoon, and we each offered to take pictures for each other.

We had a little bit of time, so we drove down to the Visitor Center to tour it before checking into our cabin at Cedar Pass Lodge.  Amber and I like to stay at some of the National Park Lodges, and this was one we had set aside some money to stay a night.  The cabins had recently been remodeled, and they were very nice.  We had a back porch with a front row seat of the Badlands Wall before us.

The gal working at the check in desk told us the Lodge's dining room would be closing at 6:30pm, so we hurriedly cleaned up (and I lay my camping gear out to dry) in order to make it to dinner.  We were both thinking on the same page with burgers & onion rings.

After dinner we still had a couple hours of daylight left, so we decided to drive back up Cedar Pass and do some short hikes.  We ended up hiking the Window and Door Trails.  The evening light was perfect conditions for viewing the Badlands, and rendered some spectacular views on our evening adventure.

As the sun set, Amber and I made it back to our cabin to watch the sunlight fade away over the Badlands Wall.  We hung around outside a bit longer before settling in to write post cards, journal, and rest up for the next day.