Week 2: It Takes a Soul to Love the Prairie

The road trip started in earnest this week, as we dropped Ellie at the airport in Madison, WI and began our journey West into the Badlands.

There's much more to South Dakota than Mount Rushmore (which is, in fact, pretty neat). We drove from Sioux Falls to Wall, taking a slight detour through Badlands National Park.

There's a lot of road between Sioux Falls and Wall, so we broke up the trip with some unique POI's. First we stopped at the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. Though out of the way by a few miles, the museum was well worthwhile. Nala enjoyed some exercise by the river and the humans enjoyed learning the history of the Lakota people and their beliefs.

The next stop was a little less impactful, but worth a mention nonetheless. Here we pulled off 240 and explored a large prairie dog town featuring a Giant Prairie Dog Statue. Cute little hungry guys.

Prairie Dog Town!

Prairie Dog Town rules

Finally we reached the Badlands Loop. Of the many options for overlooks throughout the park, we stopped at (from East to West):

Prairie Wind Overlook

Panorama Point

Yellow Mounds Overlook*

Pinnacles Overlook

Yellow Mounds gets an asterisk because it was an unexpected favorite. The colors of the landscape were magical, and the terrain was wonderfully unique. But we were just passing along, as the hiking trails here are not dog-friendly. We drove through the park in about an hour and a half.

After the excitement of the drive, we grabbed a bite to eat at The Red Rock in Wall, our destination for the night. The bbq was delicious and our drinks hit the spot. Then we got some rest before heading to Rapid City.

The drive from Wall to Rapid City doesn't take long, but we wanted to get some hiking in so we stopped in Black Hills National Forest. Driving to the trailhead, we passed Mount Rushmore, so we took a few quick pics and continued on our way. We hiked Horse Thief Lake with Nala, and all four of us had a blast. This was a six mile out and back incline trail, which we had to cut a little short due to severe weather. We learned some lessons about preparedness, and will be taking the Boy Scout motto more seriously on future hikes.

From Rapid City we drove to Gering, Nebraska, and made some pitstops along the way. First we stopped at Wind Cave National Park, where we had two dog-friendly hikes to choose from. We chose Elk Mountain Nature Trail, after a ranger shared that it would be a shadier option. The hike started at Elk Mountain Campground, an adorable campsite off the beaten path but accessible by car. The hike had less tree coverage than we were made to believe, but we were better prepared this time and thoroughly enjoyed the juxtaposition of prairie and forest.

Back in the car, we left the park and followed a very dusty dirt road (Go Tilly!) to Toadstool Geologic Park. Yes, it was as neat as the name suggested. These mushroom-shaped rock formations exist when over millions of years, the wind erodes the soft clay at the bottom, but not the sandstone at the top. Thus creating a giant toadstool shape. Perhaps for a giant toad to take shelter from the sweltering South Dakota sunshine. We definitely did!

Toadstool Geologic park is also the inspiration for this week's blog post title, as it was here that we read the great Willa Cather quote, "anybody can love the mountains, but it takes a soul to love the prairie." Upon reading this, we took a moment to reflect on our journey so far and our journey to come. We did our best to pay homage to the prairie, a less popular natural landscape than the mountains we were headed to next. We felt grateful to have experienced a new type of geography, and South Dakota felt like more than just a way station. Of all the miles we've come and the miles we've yet to go, we'll always remember the warm breeze and vibrance of the prairie.

Next we'll be heading down to Boulder, Crested Butte, and Ouray in Colorado. So we can see firsthand how those Rockies stack up to the Badlands. Happy trails!