South Dakota, Part I

Our first stop west of Minnesota was the Big Sioux Recreation Area in Brandon, South Dakota – just outside of Sioux Falls.

We are adjusting into a routine of car travel, and it largely centers around doing whatever it takes to keep Audrey from losing it. While we heavily rely on screens (movies and shows), like many guilt-ridden parents, we try to balance screen-time with non-screen activities. It is especially hard when we want to (and theoretically could) engage the older two with the scenery and cool facts about the areas we’re in, but we can’t focus long enough to do so while managing Audrey’s off and on whining.

We discovered early on that the Frozen soundtrack – Frozen I, not so much Frozen II – is a great tool to bribe Audrey into not whining (“We’ll turn on Frozen if you stop whining!” and “We’re going to turn Frozen off if you keep whining!”). We would listen to the first 7 or 8 Frozen songs on repeat to appease her. Don’t get me wrong – it was totally worth it. But we quickly progressed from singing and tapping along to the music to sheer anger and jaw-clenching whenever Frozen was playing. At some point I came up with a genius plan – let Audrey listen to Frozen on repeat by downloading the songs onto the ipad and plugging in her headphones! Game. Changer.

Not only does this eliminate the option of screen time for Elsie and Willa, since the ipad is our only video-watching tool, but it soothes Audrey without requiring everyone else to hear “Anna and Elsa!” over and over and over. The longer rides now look like Willa sleeping, Elsie reading, and Audrey listening to Anna and Elsa with her headphones on, excitedly pointing out the cows she sees, and demanding new snacks every 20 minutes.

Anyway, the Big Sioux Recreation Area was a scenic State Park with a great trail system and two (!) playgrounds. It was only 20 minutes or so from Sioux Falls, but also abutted a dirt road and horse pastures. The area around the park was schizophrenic in that it is 5 minutes off the interstate, but a dirt road is the recommended route into Sioux Falls and leads you past undoubtedly million-dollar estates on one hand and original, now run-down farms on the other. And then suddenly you are in suburbia that is a rapidly growing Sioux Falls.

I was excited to visit my college friends and roommate, Jamie and John Michael, and their little girls while we were there. It was one of those things that I had texted Jamie about months and months ago when this trip was in its infancy, so it was very exciting when it actually happened and worked out as planned! It was so touching introducing our girls (5 in all- what?!) to one another and I’m always happy to visit with friends and catch up after not seeing many people in over a year.

On a rainy morning in Sioux Falls we visited the butterfly museum and aquarium and, when it cleared up in the afternoon, climbed up the tower at Falls Park. We missed out on downtown Sioux Falls, which is something I wish we could have seen. But we opted for an evening walk in the woods on the “Valley of the Giants” trail, which led us to huge oak trees and through tall prairie grasses (thanks for the tip John Michael).

We left Sioux Falls after just a few days and headed West to Chamberlain, South Dakota. This was a late addition to the itinerary after I realized we probably didn’t want to try to make a 5-hour trek straight from Sioux Falls to the Badlands. If you are wondering why 5 hours would be too much, refer to the beginning of this post where I took 3 paragraphs to only scratch the surface of how much of a beast Audrey can be in the car.

Chamberlain was having a Friday night town festival while we were there and the girls had a blast running through an obstacle course, getting their faces painted, and trying to ride a mechanical bull. I love that we can stumble upon and take advantage of unique and fun events while we travel. We tried to sneak in a little history (supplemented by Grandpa Dave on FaceTime) about Lewis and Clark and their journey up the Missouri River. While the girls were more interested in throwing rocks back and forth, I firmly believe that you never know what will stick, so such lessons are always worth the effort.

The next stop after Chamberlain was Badlands National Park. I booked Cedar Pass Campground in the Badlands back in February and then soon after, Alex and I watched Nomadland in excited anticipation of our trip. I quickly identified Cedar Pass as the campground where much of the movie was filmed and Alex was a huge doubter of my mad skills until I could prove it with pictures. For this reason alone, I was very excited to stay at Cedar Pass. Not many national parks accommodate rigs as big as ours, so that made this stay extra special and unique. The picture below is from Cedar Pass during the 10 minutes we were there. Recognize the picnic table set up from Nomadland?!

Well, it turns out I am also learning to be flexible, because we pulled into our spot and there was no way it was going to work. I’m kicking myself now that I didn’t take pictures of this whole situation, but it was comical how far out our steps would have gone into the road and how our slides simply would not have been able to expand without hitting a guidepost. I was not a happy camper.

The campground host tried to help us switch sites but ended up selling us on an overflow spot “not even a mile away” that was “way quieter” and “had water AND electric.” We felt we truly had no other option, so regardless of the strangely exaggerated upsell, we followed the camp host to an old hotel that was indeed only about a mile outside of the park.

We pulled in and around the back side of the hotel and parked next to “the maintenance man” and his RV for the night. Again, despite telling myself repeatedly to be sure to get a picture of the place, I failed to do so. But let’s just say it didn’t not resemble the scene of many a horror movie. “I stayed here last year” said the camp host. “It’s very quiet – no one will hear you. I mean, you will not hear anyone.” Ok, I’m embellishing a bit. Regardless, it was freaky. Don’t worry, mom, it ended up fine. When we came back from exploring that day, we found that it was very much an active hotel and one that catered to families, no less. As exhausted as we were, we slept fine, woke up fine, and all was good despite Alex’s comment when we first pulled in: “what could possibly go wrong with staying in the back of a seemingly abandoned motel in the middle of the Badlands with the maintenance man?”

The Badlands is an impressive place. The rocks, buttes and spires are like a more porous, less slippery version of the Lake Superior lava rocks, so the girls loved climbing up and sliding down the hills. It was tough for me and Alex to remember that their three little bodies can’t handle quite as long or strenuous of hikes as we would like to do. We definitely pushed the limits. But it is just such amazing scenery!

We tested everyone’s patience further by embarking on a long car ride not too long after arriving. We wanted to see as much wildlife as we could in the short time we were there. Boy, did we luck out. Elsie made a list of all that we saw – prairie dogs, big horn sheep, antelope, mule deer, and last and best of all – bison.

All of us were searching hard for a bison siting as we approached the end of our drive. That’s when Alex stopped suddenly and pointed down a long hill to a mound that was either a large rock or a far-away bison. It began to move a bit, so we excitedly pulled over to watch a lone bison in its natural habitat. It was several hundred yards away, so we all got out of the car and walked across the road to watch it. It meandered around and made its way down a valley. It seemed to be getting closer to us. Sure enough, it disappeared in the hill and reappeared only about 100 yards away. Surprised by its sudden appearance, we rushed toward the car and jumped in.

Willa and Audrey burst into tears, frightened more from the rush to the car than the bison itself. But we made the right call. The bison managed to very quickly, without ever breaking into a run, wander up to the road across from us. It crossed the road behind us and came practically right alongside our truck to graze. Then we noticed three other bison coming from the other side. These ones were running. They were excitedly playing with one another, completely oblivious to us, as they ran alongside our truck (and at one point directly at our truck). More tears flowed from the backseat. What a thrill to get a close-up view of a giant bison in the wild.

After coming down from our bison-induced high, we swung in an entirely different, but still ultra-touristy direction and hit up Wall Drug. It was not as quaint as I remember it from 2004 when I was there last. Admittedly, I was most excited about the free ice water that I was never able to find.

We finished off our time in the Badlands with another hike and then took off to our next destination – the Black Hills.