Our day started out with a beautiful drive from Spearfish, SD to Mt Rushmore on the Scenic Byway. We decided to skip taking I-90 through Rapid City to Mt Rushmore since we enjoyed our drive yesterday so much on the scenic route. This choice proved to be a good one because we drove through the Black Hills National Forest. And I thought South Dakota was totally flat...wrong. It was a very pretty drive. We arrived at Mt Rushmore around noon and wandered around taking photos for about an hour. I thought it would be really tacky but the monument itself is very impressive. The story behind it is really neat too about how it was built, why it was built, and what it represents. We left there happy with our decision to visit. The entire area around the monument is built around tourism. Later on in the day we thought it might have been worth it to stay an extra night in Rapid City. But by the time we came to that revelation it was way too late.
From Mt. Rushmore we headed back North to join back on I-90 to continue our journey East. Now here is where we get a little silly, we decided to stop at Cabela's. Yes, we really did stop there. For those of you unfamiliar with Cabela's, it is the Supercenter for Hunters. Now we know where most of the buffalo went, they are stuffed and mounted in Cabela's. hehe. We also saw a few stuffed antelope, which are apparently referred to as pronghorns. Took a picture to show you all what they look like.
From there, we were off to the Badlands National Park. On our way there, we drove through the Buffalo Gap National Grassland but all we saw were cows. Where are the Buffalo? That's right, they are at Cabela's. We arrived at the Badlands National Park and it was a free weekend. Excellent! This park was like nothing I have ever seen before and subsequently I snapped off over 100 photos. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side today and it rained the whole time we were in the park. Being the trained Seattle-ites we are, it didn't even phase us. Another car with Washington plates stopped to ask us where we were from since it looked like the weather wasn't bothering us much. Who needs umbrella's? I only break those crappy things out if it is pouring and I don't want my hair to get frizzy. The kids loved the park. We stopped at every viewpoint and read the signs. I only hope my pictures will convey the parks impressiveness. While in the park, we were also able to add Big Horn Sheep to our wildlife list. Yah!
We finally exited the park at 6pm and continued our journey East on I-90. This entire trip we have been flying by the seat of our pants and booking hotels pretty much the day we need them. This is nice because it afforded us the flexibility to stay an extra day in Cody. So, as we are traveling East on I-90 we realize that Sioux Falls, SD is still about 4 hours away. Not wanting to drive that long into the evening we were unsure where to stay. The towns are minimal, if any, and the hotels are sketchy at best. So, we hoped that there would be something in Chamberlain, SD. We started seeing these signs for Al's Oasis (which is a touristy mini-mall). So, we hoped there would be something there at least to eat. We arrived in Oacoma, SD at 10:15 central time (we went through a time zone after the Badlands). And there we saw it, a Holiday Inn. Yes! We hit up Al's Oasis for dinner then off the hotel which thankfully had room. Not like that was a worry since it is Sunday in the middle of nowhere South Dakota.
Another great day with no idea where we will end up tomorrow.
