Kimball, SD to Gillette, WY

Yesterday was pretty much one long drive through South Dakota. We had breakfast at this little diner right next to the hotel. The food was really good, but the coffee was weak. As soon as John and I poured our glasses we noticed how clear the coffee looked. The menu had an item named the “New Englander,” but it was potato cakes with toppings. The only time I’ve ever had potato cakes in New England is when I or my mom has made them. Is it actually something we’re known for to people outside of New England?

It wasn’t more than a few minutes before we hit the Missouri River. As soon as we hit the river the landscape seemed to change again. Instead of flat land with a gentle slope, the landscape was covered with small, rolling hills as far as you could see. It was strange though because as much as the terrain was made up of small hills, it still seemed flat. The crops of soybeans and corn started to be replaced by fields of sunflowers, wheat, and hay. Of course the wheat had already been harvested so the only evidence we saw was long tracts of gold a few inches high. The hay had also been harvested, but not taken anywhere so there were round bales scattered everywhere as far as the eye could see. Sometimes they were in lines, while other times they were stacked up like small pyramids.

We did the Badlands Loop. I had no idea what to expect. You’re driving along the start of the Badlands loop, just seeing more “flat.” Then BAM – you’re staring at beautiful cliffs and canyons. At first you can get out and walk around and stare out over all of these white and red layers of rock. After a few minutes you start to drive through passes in the rocks. Towards the end was my favorite – yellow mounds with red sand running down the sides with white sand caps. Kind of looked like those sand art bottles.

The Badlands Loop leads you right to what seems like this oasis in the middle of the desert. Winn told us the avoid Wall, and other tourist trap type places, but I think those are the coolest places. Wall was awesome. They had a huge mall of what was probably a hundred different shops. We ate in one of the dining rooms that had life-size replicas of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid carved into a 187-year-old cedar tree. There were walls and walls of Western themed art which was also pretty cool to look at.

After Wall? Oh yeah, we headed for the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore. The terrain changed again and led us through mountains covered in soft wood/pine trees. The rocks were much different – jagged, all over the place and mixed in with red cliff faces. Rushmore was very cool. We went right from Rushmore to Crazy Horse which was also fascinating. We were only a few minutes from the start of laser show at Crazy Horse, but we decided to head out since it was getting pretty dark. We were warned not to drive at night in South Dakota because of all of the animals that crawl out after hiding from the hot sun. We saw a few mule deer, but other than that, not many animals ventured too close to the road.

On the way to Gillette we drove by several coal mine/power plant operations which looked really weird all lit up. We also followed a storm for 2 hours. Since the landscape was generally flat again, we could see awesome lightning strikes the whole way from Custer to Gillette.

Today, we head for Yellowstone. It’s supposed to be 70′s and raining, but we’ll probably welcome it after yesterday’s brutal sun and 90/100 degree weather.