Midwest Roadtrip 2022: Day 7/9

Good Morning

Jeremy and I woke up at 6:30am, quickly dressed, and packed up our things. We 10/10 don't recommend staying at America's Best Value Inn in Wall, South Dakota. We never took our socks off because the carpet was so stained. To be honest, we 10/10 don't recommend staying in Wall, period.

Badlands National Park - Part 1

We drove into Badlands National Park. There was no ranger to give us a map, or to take our money, so we drove right through. We entered from the North end and turned right, eager to see the sun rise. We stopped at the first overlook and I took a few photographs.

Jeremiah in the Badlands

Shrub

On our way to the second overlook, we saw a pronghorn.

Pronghorn

We watched the sun rise from the second overlook, and saw a lone bison across the canyon also enjoying the break of day. We then drove to Prairie Dog Town, but none of the prairie dogs were out and about. Maybe they aren't "early risers".

Jeremy at the lookout parking lot.

The Lone Bison

View from second lookout

Shrub

Back to Wall

​We left the park and went back to Wall for breakfast.

Our motel didn't have breakfast on site, but had provided a voucher for Badlands Bar and Grille. Jeremy had biscuits and gravy with bacon and hash-browns. I had French toast with bacon and hash-browns.

We left the restaurant and stopped to get coffee at a small drive-thru called Stomping Grounds Coffee, which was arguably the best thing about the entire town of Wall.

Badlands National Park - Part 2

Back to Badlands we went, and this time there was a ranger at the gate. We purchased an America the Beautiful Pass and got our park map. There were prairie dogs next to the gate, stretching in the morning light, so we did get to see them after missing them at Prairie Dog Town. 

Prairie Dog

This time we went left after entering the park. The views were all spectacular. We saw more canyons among rigid rocks.

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park

We saw the dome-like rock formations with yellows and reds.

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park

We saw White River cutting through the landscape.

White River in Badlands National Park

We saw a small herd of big-horned sheep, some of which had impressive racks! We also saw a lot of prairie dogs throughout the park.

Big-Horned Sheep Booty

Big-Horned Sheep

Big Horned Sheep - I guess they track some of them!

Big-Horned Sheep

We were also blessed with a visit from a chipmunk and a bunny, and the bunny stuck around long enough to get a nice portrait of.

Rabbit

We made our way through the rest of the park, stopping many times on the way to admire the changing rock formations.

Jeremy in Badlands

Jeremy in Badlands

We stopped at the visitor's center before exiting the park and bought a few items in the gift shop.

Rapid City

We exited the park at the Northeast gate, hopped on I-90 West, and went to Rapid City.

The first thing we did in Rapid City was find a place to have lunch. We went to Colonial House, where we had cheese curds, and we both got walleye. 

We checked into our hotel, The Rushmore Hotel, unpacked the car, and then went shopping.

Jeremy in our room at Rushmore Hotel

The first store we went to was an antique store called Younique Finds. We then went downtown and went to Heroes and Villains, Celtic Connection of the Black Hills, Starbucks, Who's Toy House, and Mitzi's Books. We then went over to the mall and shopped there for a bit. The mall was very nice, and unsurprisingly named Rushmore Mall. Next, and finally, we went to a place called BAM.

We went and had dinner at Millstone, and sat in the parking lot for a bit finishing our coffee from the coffee shop inside BAM called Joe Muggs Coffee. We went inside where Jeremy had a Monte Cristo, and I had a chicken melt. 

It was time to call it a night, so we went back to our hotel and went to bed.