Cross Country Road Trip: South Dakota pt. 1

The last stop for the day was Sioux Falls, and I don’t think I was prepared for just how rural the surrounding area was; I was surrounded by farmland right up to the very city limits. I drove through the requisite strip malls and outskirts of the city before coming up to the compact but very charming downtown core. There were art deco buildings that had been either well preserved or restored, and it was clear that a lot of effort had been put into reviving the downtown into a place where people wanted to hang out. Cafes and restaurants and cute shops and even a patisserie.

My hotel was in an old bank, and they had turned the vault into the entrance to a cozy wine bar. If you find yourself in Sioux Falls for any reason, I can recommend Hotel On Phillips for the vibes alone.

After dinner, I still had a lot of time before sunset, since I was closer to the western edge of the central time zone and it was broad daylight at 8:30pm. It turns out that Falls Park really is in the middle of the city, and it really is a sizable waterfall that they somehow incorporated into the middle of a city. The pictures online do not lie. One minute you’re walking along a lazy river drifting through the center of town, the next… you’re looking at this.

If you look closely, you can see the people in the frame for scale. This park and these falls are not small.

While they’re not quite as big as Great Falls in the DC area, the rock formations felt similar, and I just could not get over the fact that anyone who lived in Sioux Falls could just wander into town and hang out here. It was a lovely evening, with hundreds of people having picnics, playing in the water, and just having themselves an amble around this amazing piece of wild landscape.

And a proposal at sunset. She enthusiastically said “yes.”

The walk to my hotel took me back along the lazy river, and I had to admit that their efforts to beautify the downtown core and make it walkable really paid off.

I didn’t have far to go the next day, so I took my time and had a idle morning. On pretty much every other day during this trip, I was getting into my car no later than 8am, either because of the long drive, or because there were 47 things I wanted to see. However, the forecast for the Badlands was hot with clear skies, so it didn’t really matter if I got there at 9am or noon.

This isn’t strictly speaking true. The light is very different between 9am and noon, but I think I just needed to sleep in because it was the only fancy hotel I’d booked for myself on the whole road trip, and that plush king size bed was a luxury I wanted to enjoy.

Once I got to the Badlands, the parking lots were full. The sun was high overhead and the only shade was from the mountainous structures themselves, leaving much of the trail exposed to the searing heat. I found some trails that I had walked back in 2009 when I first came to South Dakota for a solo trip. Everything up to this point was new, and everything past Devils Tower would be new as well, but this little stretch of SD and WY was a return to places I’d been before. It all felt very different, though. The park had much better infrastructure and the trails were better marked. In 2009, I got horribly lost and found myself scrambling up inclines I had no business trying to climb.

The rule in the Badlands is that you can go wherever you please, but always at your own risk.

I have to admit that I remembered my first trip with a lot more fondness than this one when it came to the Badlands. This would also prove to be the case throughout my return to places I’d visited previously. I suppose it was inevitable, as these are truly beautiful places, and of course their popularity would grow with exposure on social media. I can’t be mad about that. I’ve done the same thing, I’ve gone to places because I saw a picture on Instagram.

I do firmly believe that the more people see these places, the more they will hopefully understand how important it is to protect them and keep them wild. I see so many Europeans talk about how some of their favorite hikes have been in the US and Canada because our wild spaces are truly wild. There are towns all throughout the Alps. Grocery stores and cars and constant reminders that humans have tamed these places. By contrast, I drove through large parts of this country where there was “nothing” for a hundred miles in any direction. No reminders that humans came through here other than the road I was on. Maybe the occasional power line.

As the hours ticked by and the light got longer, the landscape became bathed in warmth. I pulled off on the side of the road to wander into this valley that led to a steep mountain pass. Fine, “mountain” pass, but it still wasn’t for the faint of heart. Directly across the street from this desolate lunar landscape was wide open grassland and more “mountains” of unknown size and height. There’s a lot more variety in the Badlands than most people realize.

The lower the sun got, the more excited I became. The last time I was out in the Badlands, it was sunrise, and I got to see that first light flood into deep crevasses and valleys. This time, it was the other way around, watching warm, sun drenched rock descend into cool shadow.

I was driving along the only real road through the Badlands when I abruptly pulled my car over to the side of the road to take a picture of the golden glow on the the landscape. It was dramatic and peaceful but for a few cars, as I stood on the hill marveling at the beauty of the light.

When I turned around, I realized that the overlook widely considered to be the best for sunsets was another 300 yards down the road, and not only had I accidentally stumbled upon the best view, but rather than sharing it with the 200+ people at the overlook, I had it all to myself. There was something poetic about that, since that was also the overlook where I took my favorite image from the 2009 trip (the dawn of time).

The next day, I moved on to Custer State Park, which I also remembered fondly from my 2009 trip. I was there a little later in the year, in September, after the kids had gone back to school, versus now showing up in mid June during the height of summer vacation. I figured there would be more people, but I don’t think I was prepared for just HOW many. Just getting into the park had me in bumper to bumper traffic.

My first stop was Stockade Lake, because I wanted to see some places I didn’t get a chance to visit on my first trip, and while the hike was lovely, it didn’t have a whole lot of punch to it.

After that, I went to Sylvan Lake because that’s where the trailhead for Sunday Gulch was. Y’all. When I went to Sylvan Lake in 2009, I had the whole place to myself. A nice young woman showed up with her infant, and we talked for a bit. There were a couple guys in kayaks out on the lake.

Imagine my shock when I showed up and there were 3 giant parking areas, all of them packed to the gills. I admit I was arriving around midday, but I was not prepared. It literally exploded in popularity. I magically found a parking spot and prayed the trail wouldn’t be completely mobbed.

The opening descent into the gulch from behind Sylvan Lake was not friendly. Massive boulders, metal railings, multiple (small) water crossings, and places where even being 5’2” wasn’t quite enough to reach the next step down. They advertise this trail as fun for the whole family. Two young women who were wearing sandals and carrying small water bottles let me pass, realizing they may have made a big mistake. As I finished the worst of the bouldering, I watched a family with small children pass me going up and thought, “well, that’s certainly going to be memorable for them.”

It was especially hot on this day and the sun was relentless without nearly enough shade, even deep in the valley. I brought two full 27oz bottles of water, and I was running close to empty by the time I was finishing up the trail. Once I made the climb back out of the valley, though, the views were worth it.

As I neared the end of the trail where it met back up with Sylvan Lake, I came across a number of people rock climbing. Spot the people in the image below. (yes, there’s more than one!)

One of the best “people for scale” images I got on the trip.

By the time I got back to Sylvan Lake, it was getting late enough that it wasn’t completely packed with people. However, I was out of water, starving, and sweaty in a way that made me decidedly anti-social. I hightailed it back to my hotel and found the first restaurant that was open at geriatric hours and ordered a massive burger. Ate the whole thing and didn’t even feel that full.

I didn’t have high hopes for sunset, but as the hours ticked by, I started to think maybe it was worth it to drive back into the park. (to be continued…)