Rockies Caravan - Part 11 - Wall Drug - Badlands NP - STR-2021-37

Monday, 20 September 

The main caravan event of the day was to reposition to Belvidere, SD, 150 miles to the east, with suggestions to tour Badlands National Park and Wall Drug in Wall, SD, enroute.

Darrell (H) and Brenda caravanned with Sprinty for the day. We headed to Rapid City for a quick stop at Cabellas, then continued east to Wall, SD to visit Wall Drug.

In 1931, Ted and Dorothy Hustead purchased the only drug store in a town with 326 people in the middle of nowhere. After five years, business had not improved. One hot day in July after watching cars go by on US 16A, they came upon the idea to give travelers what they needed after driving across the hot prairie - water. Not just any water, but ice water. For free. The first day, people came pouring in. And they bought things like ice cream. 

Though they surely violated the three cardinal rules of commercial success - location, location and location - the Hustead's more than made up for it with promotion, promotion and more promotion.

Today, Wall Drug gets up to 20,000 people stopping in on a good summer day. Stopping for five cent coffee, donuts, souvenirs, and other merchandise.  And there is even an actual drug store amongst the many shops.

Wall Drug is an iconic stop in South Dakota. Like Rock City on Lookout Mountain in Georgia. Standing in the Corner in Winslow, AZ. And South of the Border in South Carolina. And equally as touristy.

We also wanted to visit Buffalo Gap National Grasslands Visitor Center located a couple of blocks from Wall Drug, but they were closed for the season.

As we headed for Badlands National Park Pinnacles (west) entrance, Sprinty took a side trip down a gravel road (like that's never happened before) to check out the dispersed camping in Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. This dispersed camping (free) is along a ridge overlooking the badlands. RVs just find an available spot and camp. Right on the cliff. Definitely not for sleep walkers.

For our day in Badlands National Park, we developed a plan based on the article "8 Things You Can't Miss On Your First Visit to Badlands" (https://www.dirtinmyshoes.com/8-things-cant-miss-first-visit-badlands-national-park/2/). Most of the 8 things are right along Hwy 240, the scenic byway through the Badlands.

As we had observed several prairie dog towns this summer, including playing golf in a prairie dog preserve in Colorado, visiting the Roberts prairie dog town, 4.5 miles down dirt road, did not interest Sprinty.

Our first stop was Pinnacles Overlook. The approaching rain storms made for dramatic skies.

Continuing on, our next stop was Yellow Mounds Overlook.

We continued east to our next stop, Panorama Point.

We had to skip hiking the Saddle Pass Trail as the parking area was too small for Sprinty, much less with the Hess camper. Something to do the next time we visit.

We made a brief stop at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, which included coming to the aid of a fellow RVer. The awning on their Sprinter-based Coachman RV would not stay in, and they wanted to borrow a ladder to duct tape it closed so they could continue their trip. The Visitor Center also had a good graphic on the age of the colored layers.

Next, we hiked the 0.5 mile Cliff Shelf Nature trail, which was mostly on an elevated boardwalk.

We continued on about a mile to the next trailhead to hike the Notch Trail, a 1.5 mile, moderately strenuous hike that requires climbing a ladder. Trail descriptions said it was not for people with fear of heights. That plus the ladder had Brenda and Kris watching as the Darrell brothers did the whole hike.

The ladder was not as sketchy as described - most of the rungs were lying on the ground.

Maybe from a distance, the ladder looked more intimidating.

As we made our way to the Notch,

we navigated a couple of narrow ledges.

A hiker we passed on his return reminded us that when we got to the notch, to stop. We heeded that advice.

We had planned to hike the 0.75 mile Door Trail, but as the afternoon was getting late, we settled for the shorter 0.3 mile Window Trail. As we approached the Window, we saw a big horn sheep lying on the ground near the trail.

Overall, the Badlands were quite interesting and full of colors. The changes in the sky made the scenery even more dramatic.

With our visit to Badlands National Park, Sprinty has visited 24 National Parks. While there are currently 63 National Parks, there are only 48 that you can drive a RV to in the Lower 48 states. Sprinty has now visited half of them.

Something we also hoped to visit as we left Badlands National Park was the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. We heard from another travelers at the Badlands Visitor Site that you had to have advance reservations. Lacking advance reservations and being late in the day, we decided to pressed on, and added it to our list of things to do on a future trip.

Our campground for the night was the Exit 170 KOA Journey east of Belvidere, SD.

Tuesday, 21 September

Today's event was repositioning to Mitchell, SD, 161 miles east on I-90. With the only caravan item on the itinerary being the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, we decided it was time to play golf. We made a tee time, then later learned that we would enter Central Time Zone and lose an hour necessitating an earlier start.

As we left the campground before sunrise, we bid goodbye to Darrell (H) and Brenda as they started home to North Carolina a day early. A benefit of an early start was getting to enjoy an amazingly beautiful sunrise.

Along the way, we made a brief stop to see the Dignity Statue near Chamberlain, SD. The 50 foot tall statue was erected in September 2016 where it overlooks the Missouri River. The star quilt held by the woman has more than 100 blue diamond shapes that move in the wind "like an Aspen leaf".

Dignity Statue

We arrived at the Lakeview Municipal Golf Course in Mitchell, SD in plenty of time. They had a big event scheduled for the afternoon, so there weren't many people playing. They sent us off on the back nine so we would be in front of the tournament that started at 1pm. We started okay, with Kris picking up strokes until Darrell birdied hole 15 which turned the tide to lead at the turn. Kris went par-less on the second nine. In all fairness, the course at 5,700 yards was pretty long for her.

Starting early and essentially having the course to ourselves enabled us to finish in time to do the 1:30pm tour at the Corn Palace (https://cornpalace.com). Normally, the Corn Palace is a self-guided visit, but for the caravan group, the Director of Marketing provided a tour for our group. 

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD is the World's Only Corn Palace. It is Mitchell's premier tourist attraction. Some 500,000 tourists come from around the nation each year to see the uniquely designed corn murals.

The city's first Corn Palace was built in 1892 as a way to prove to the world that South Dakota had a healthy agricultural climate. The palace was conceived as a gathering place where city residents and their rural neighbors could enjoy a fall festival with extraordinary stage entertainment - a celebration to climax a crop-growing season and harvest. This tradition continues today with the annual Corn Palace Festival held in late August each year.

The current Corn Palace was built in 1921 - making the building 100 years old. The Palace is redecorated each year with naturally colored corn and other grains and native grasses to make it "the agricultural show-place of the world". 12 different colors or shades of corn are used to decorate the Corn Palace: red, brown, black, blue, white, orange, calico, yellow and even green corn. A different theme is chosen each year, and murals are designed to reflect that theme. Ear by ear the corn is nailed to the Corn Palace to create a scene. The decorating process usually starts in late May with the removal of the rye and dock. The corn murals are stripped at the end of August and the new ones are completed by the first of October. 

Our campground for our final night of the caravan was the Dakota Campground in Mitchell, SD. At 6pm, the Wagonmasters and Tailgunners hosted an ice cream social. 

Enjoying ice cream

Fellow caravaners, Jeff and Linda, from Rome, GA, entertained the group.

Wednesday, 22 September

The caravan concluded with a morning coffee and pastries goodbye. Some of the caravan folks had ready left - some yesterday, and some got on the road real early this morning.

This wraps up the 38-day Great Rocky Mountain Exploration with a Black Hills Twist. The caravan tour included: Camping Fees, 28+Meals, Breakfast and Coffee Mornings, Nightly Get-Together's, Entertainment, Ticket Admissions, Dinner Shows, Bus Tours, Professional Caravan Staff, Gratuities, and More.

While the catalog indicated the caravan was 2,180 miles of driving, Sprinty must not have gotten that memo as his odometer recorded 2,634 miles from Colorado Springs to Mitchell, SD.

This also wraps up the 11-part series on Sprinty's 2021 caravan travels with 55 new friends from all over the United States traveling in 29 RVs adventuring in the Rockies.

Sprinty now returns you to his irregularly scheduled blog posts of his independent adventuring as he heads home to prepare for future adventures.