West Quest Part Deux - Day 18

Sioux Falls to Badlands National Park

Back to Day 17

Saturday, 27 August 2022

This morning we departed for Badlands National Park after a wonderful week in Sioux Falls.

The drive west across South Dakota is interesting with gently rolling hills and a variety of different scenes including cornfields, hayfields, cattle, wild sunflowers, cultivated sunflower fields, and several other crops I didn’t recognize including this one:

If you know what this crop is, please comment and let me know.

At the exit off I-90 for Badlands National Park, there is also the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site which serves as a small museum paying tribute to the now-retired Minuteman II missile complex that served our nation from 1965-1994. (Interestingly, the first time I ever visited the Badlands in 1992, I had no idea that it was surrounded by hundreds of Minuteman II missiles on alert.)

We then drove another 20 minutes or so to a town called Interior where we are staying at Badlands Interior Campground for the next two nights. It’s not fancy, but it’s just outside the park.

A view from our campground.

Another view.

Finally, we sat out under the stars with a bottle of wine and enjoyed the majesty of the heavens, including this:

Go to Day 19