Starting in Sioux Falls on the far eastern side of SD and driving to Rapid City on the far western side of SD, is many many miles of plains, and not much in between if you don't know what to look for (sidenote: refer to the previous entry and the following entry to find out about a few more attractions). We began our day by heading towards the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, but on the way we noticed a memorial to the USS South Dakota which was replicated on this field to its exact dimensions. Walking through the replica of the earthened battleship was many interesting facts about the battles and theatres that the USS South Dakota fought in. Definitely a nice little surprise. Just down the block was the zoo which turned out to be really great. There were many different types/kinds of animals from all over the world, big to small, furry to feathered, slimy to scaley. Some of the most impressive exhibits (among many others) were the monkeys, amur tiger, snow leopard, brown and black bears, and my favorite, the cheetahs! I had always wanted to see a cheetah since its my favorite animal, so this was cool even though I couldn't get that close to them. The monkeys were the funniest as they had a cool playpen for them to swing around and tackle each other. Overall it was a pretty solid zoo.
After the morning in Sioux Falls we headed out into the vast plains of South Dakota (but only saw Buffalo at the zoo... lame), heading west towards Rapid City. The first stop was about an hour west at the town of Mitchell. Mitchell is famous for its Corn Palace which is a structure that has been around since the early 1900's that has a facade of real corn in patterns of various murals on the building. It is sort of like an assembly hall that was used for shows and expo's back during the Homestead times and is now used for various events, basketball games, and for the museum. It was a very cool building and the history was very interesting to learn about. After that my dad insisted on going to the George McGovern museum in town which actually was kind of cool... I'll let history buffs look into him more. Following the pit stop in Mitchell we continued on our way and started really getting into the middle of South Dakota where there were small rolling hills, lots of plains, and lots of agriculture.
Next stop was in the town of Chamberlain on the banks of the Missouri River. A rest stop along the Interstate had an exhibit of Lewis and Clark's expedition. According to the exhibit, Lewis and Clark had stopped and camped at this particular point on their journey out west. It was an amazing view of the valley and the river from atop the hills. It was fun to imagine what those explorers and settlers must have thought of the area when they first gazed upon it. In addition, it was easy to see how the Native Americans of the area thrived on the land, and this was a common theme throughout the parts of middle America that I have seen. Then, it was around a little past halfway across the State where I passed an 1880's preserved South Dakota town, the 2,000 mile mark on my trip, and entered into the Mountain Standard Time Zone. From there it was only a little while further until reaching the main attraction, the Badlands National Park.
In the interest of keeping this blog to a minimum and holding your attention span, the Badlands National Park (which you should look up on the internet for more cool information on it)is situated about an hour east of Rapid City. You go through this expanse of plains and then arrive at some of the craziest rock formations and canyons that you'll ever see. They don't call them the Badland for nothing, as if it wasn't for the roads, trying to pass through this area would be extremely treachorous. Anyways, it's absolutely worth taking the scenic route through the Badlands so that you can get up close and personal with the park and even hike into them if you so please. I'll let the pictures do the talking but only standing there can you really get a sense of the vastness of the grasslands and detail of the Badlands. You can also check out Bear Grylls on Discovery's Man vs Wild doing an episode in the South Dakota prairie and Badlands here: Man vs. Wild - Badlands. Oh and another thing, along this part of South Dakota is the missile silos for the ICBM's that were built specifically for the Cold War. Unfortunately we arrived too late in the evening to be able to go on the tours of the silos and command center. I bet it would have been sweet though (it's called Minuteman Missile National Historic Site).
Following the breathtaking expanse of the Badlands, we headed out of the National Park and continued on our way to Rapid City with the Black Hills off in the western horizon. After many miles of traveling, we finally arrived in Rapid City and quickly went downtown to catch dinner at a place called the Corn Exchange. The city itself was mostly unimpressive and very spread out, but there was a small section of the city with interesting shopping stores (very western and tribal feel to them), and some historic midwestern style building reminiscent of a town that boomed in the late 1800's and early 1900's but has now experienced vast changes and is trying to recover... if that makes sense. It was also cool to see Native American families walking around the city, which is very uncommon in the east coast. I just felt terrible because I know how impoverished Native Americans are as an ethnic group. Definitely a shame, especially considering the ones that make millions opening up casinos are a very small minority of the Indian population.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Black Hills and am getting very close to the final destination on this portion of the road trip. Yeehaw!!
P.S. I accidently killed a small tortoise on the Interstate today... it was a bloody obliteration that I experienced in my rear view mirror. Def felt terrible. So please pour some out for ones homies (or tortoises) next time you have a drink.
My condolences go out the Tortoise community out there...it'll be better where he's going.
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