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South Dakota 2021
The last of the “new” states we would be visiting on our Covid road trip was South Dakota. We entered into the state from the east, into Sioux Falls. The falls aren’t spectacular like Niagara, but they are really peaceful.
The Arc of Dreams is built over the river down the way from the falls. It was such a creative sculpture, dedicated to dreamers.
Continuing west, we stopped at the Alta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center. One of the quotes I read there that hit home was by Red Cloud in 1870: “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land and they took it.”
The remainder of the drive was very boring. Most of the trip we had 3-4 hour drives each day. But our drive across southern South Dakota was going to be long. I purchased a foldable snack holder in the hopes of minimizing kid complaint and needs. It worked perfectly. I found my own amusement taking picture of the Wall Drug signs. They were continuous, and sometimes repeating. But I documented at least 16 originals. We started to call it the “Must Miss” Wall Drug. Of course we stopped there. It is essentially a bunch of tourist stores, although you can certainly pick up drug store things you might need.
From there we went to the Badlands. It was HOT. There are a lot of great hiking trails but you definitely need a hat. You can find something suitable here.
Once we left the Badlands, we entered Rapid City. Anyone with kids knows that teaching too much history on vacation could be a waste. But Rapid City (AKA City of the Presidents) was different. All the street corners in the downtown area have a likeness of each US President and we visited each one.
Next we went to Custer State Park. Custer had buffalo roaming around. It had cute little tunnels through huge rocks and some fun vistas of Mt. Rushmore. We drove to Crazy Horse and then, on the 4th of July, we went to Mount Rushmore. There aren’t fireworks due to fire hazards, but it is still a great place to be to celebrate the USA. South Dakota is Mount Rushmore State, obviously.
The next day we did some horseback riding, only to discover my son is allergic to horses. Luckily we had Zyrtec! I wasn’t sure what to wear horseback riding so I bought some special pants and a shirt. We left South Dakota after that and headed for Denver, CO via Nebraska.
