View Day 8 Rapid City, SD to Sundance, WY in a larger map
I had to drive east to Wall, SD, which is home to the oldest pharmacy in the U.S. I should have stopped becasue literally every half mile or so I felt like there was another Wall Drug billboard. They seem to be pretty popular in the midwest becasue I had been seeing billboards for different Wall Drug stores I think all the way back in Wisconsin... Regardless, I didn't feel I had time so I stopped for gas because there are no gas stations once you get inside the Badlands National Park.
While I was at the gas station a gentleman and I sparked up conversation which lasted for a while. It turns out this mans name is Tuffy Morrison and he is a member of the Sioux Nation (Native American Tribe). I asked him about life on the reservation because I have heard about the awful suicide rates, poverty and drug abuse. He told me it was all true. In his tribe of about 20,000 there were back to back months with 20+ suicide attempts and on month there was 21 attempts and 21 deaths... I was given an invite to spend a day on the reservation which I am hoping I can find a way to make it happen. He did tell me some interesting things related to how any services they need on the reservation they typically have to pay more for than non-Native American.. For example, if an Native American needs a parking lot to be paved they will end up paying a much higher price than a non-Native Americans. In my travels since this day I have spoken to a lot of other people and noticed that there is definitely a fair amount of animosity between Native Americans and non-Native Americans.
Well.... Eventually I did make it to the badlands and thankfully because they are amazing....
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| Entering the Badlands - Cost $10 per motorcycle |
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| Notice all of the different layers of rock and how erosion has shaped the land |
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| Yes it is really hot in my "spacesuit" & yes that is a Puma shirt underneath |
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| This was amazing.. becasue of the different organisms that lived here at varios times (millions of years ago) distinctive colors were caused when they decomposed |
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| All of the roads through the Badlands were extremly windy as they went through the mountains |
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| Erosion from the wind and rain has created such an amazing landscape |
After leaving the Badlands I took Tuffy Morisons advice and rode back towards Rapid City on South Dakota SR-44 (SR= State Route). As driving through the scenery was great. It was flat grasslands with an amazing backdrop of the Badlands to my right. After another hour and a half I made it back to the Rapid City area and turned onto SR-16 towards Mount Rushmore. The roads became windy and at times went through tunnels that cut through the sides of mountains. Then I looked to my right and saw the faces of four of our past presidents. It cost me $15 to enter and as you can see this must have been a massive job to carve these faces into the rock. Despite the dangerous nature of carving the rock that high off the ground not a single live was lost depsite having 400 workers between the years of 1927-1941.
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| If you look up you may see a profile (side-view) of a face... |
After leaving here I really wanted to drive to Custer National Park but was running behind becasue I spent so much time in the Badlands.. So I did drive through the Black Hills but not through the most beautiful portions... :(
One said thing to see is that so many pine trees are dead in the Black Hills. Apparently there is a bark beetle that is killing all of the trees. This is truly an epidemic. Literally entire mountain sides were covered with dead trunks of trees. It was a real sad sight.. So what can be done?? Another sad thing is that many towns really on certain industries. For example there was a gold mine in Lead, SD which supported the town of Deadwood. Unfortunately the mine closed about 12 years ago an left a lot of people without jobs. So many people left. Now the town is filled with bars and casinos and is now solely dependant upon tourists. The mine was abandoned and is now home to undergound scientific laboratories about 5000' ( ' = feet) deep.
As I was riding through Deadwood it was nightime and I wanted to get a hotel because there is so much wildlife in the area that driving at night is sketchy... Unfortunately the cheapest hotel in town was $150, which was out of my budget. So I drove another 30 to next town of Spearfish, SD and checked five hotels and they were all booked... I continued on for another hour to the next town, Sundance, WY. This drive was nerve racking because there weren't many people on the rode and all I could see is what my lights lit up. I nearly hit a fresh roadkill (looked like a dear). I missed it but ran over its fluids and felt my tire slip a bit.. It definitely shook me up a bit and I was glad to finally get off the highway.Unfrotunately the Best Western was also booked but the lovely lady called around and found me a room at a local motel!!! I was so thankful!! Time to lay my head on a pillow and relax.
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