Yellowstone Trip Day 3

 Thursday Sept. 9

Today was a really awesome day! It was great to get to stop, see and do some different things.

The first stop was the Corn Palace, which was extremely interesting....

The Palace has been in existence for over 100 years. The unique thing about it is the murals that are made every year with colored corn, grasses and grains. Each year has a different theme and the process of removing the existing murals and building the new ones takes several months. The inside of the building has a basketball arena and kiosks.

On my way back to the expressway I stopped and grabbed a geocache that was hidden here...

My next stop was in the town of Chamberlain to see the Dignity Statue.  The statue stands 50 feet tall and honors the Lakota and Dakota Indians of South Dakota. The statue is also the location of a geocache, so I made sure to get the necessary photo to claim this geocache. It is located at a spot along the river where Louis and Clark had stopped. I really wanted to see the Lewis and Clark interpretive center there but unfortunately it was closed because they didn’t have anybody to staff it.  

After that I continued on to the Badlands and my first stop was at the Ranch Store of the Badlands.

The store is home to a large colony of Prairie Dogs. Admission is free and you can purchase bags of unsalted peanuts to feed the prairie dogs which were so adorable. Some of them would even come and take a peanut out of my hand.

Finally I headed into Badlands National Park and I can’t even describe the beauty of this place.

The history of these geologic formations is quite interesting and you can read more about them here. I stopped and hiked the Door Trail first...

I then headed over to the Notch Trail which is the one I was really looking forward to. You hike a couple blocks and then you have to climb up a 50 rung wooden to get to the upper trail and you go on from there.  Climbing the ladder was a lot more difficult than I imagined it would be. The last 3 or 4 rungs were actually difficult and strenuous and I admit I was huffing and puffing a little bit when I reached the top.

I continued on for a bit but then stopped because it would be really easy to get lost. They do have trail markers but since I was by myself I didn’t feel comfortable with continuing on because of the rugged terrain and the steep drop offs. I climbed back down the ladder and sat at the bottom with 2 women for quite awhile just watching people maneuver up and down the ladder.

It was still a good hike and one that I had been looking forward to. The temperatures were in the high 90's and by the time I got back to the car I was soaked in sweat.

After that I stopped at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center which was extremely crowded. Masks were required in all Federal Buildings that I visited on my trip and some locations would only let so many people into the building at one time.

After getting my National Parks book stamped I headed outside of the park to the KOA Interior Campground for the night.   It’s a nice quiet campground and the bathrooms were just OK nothing spectacular. I was looking forward to a good nights sleep and since I had crossed over into the mountain time zone, I ended up going to bed really early. LOL.

If you're looking for a great pair of hiking boots, I recommend Vasque Boots. I've had mine for almost 10 years and they are well made, sturdy boots. My particular pair are waterproof as well. You can read my original review on them here.

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Yellowstone Trip Day 2

 Wednesday Sept 8

I left Missouri at 8:15 and headed west on 70 and then north on 29.   This was pretty much another drive day although I stopped in Sioux City Iowa to see the Sargent Floyd Monument. For those of you not familiar with Sargent Floyd, he was a member of the Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery expedition of 1804-1806.  President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the journey to explore the Louisiana Purchase and establish a cross country water route to the Pacific Ocean. Sargent Floyd died of appendicitis at the beginning of the journey - the only person to die the entire time. The Captains chose a fitting spot to lay Sargent Floyd to rest on a bluff overlooking the river.

If you want to read more about this fascinating expedition I highly recommend "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose. The book goes into detail about their journey across half the continent and the trials and tribulations this rugged group of men endured to accomplish their mission.

(photo from Amazon)

It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 70's and good for travel.   Leaving Sioux Falls I headed west on 90 towards my 2nd nights campground. I stopped at a very nice rest area in South Dakota and grabbed a geocache.   I noticed that a lot of the rest areas in South Dakota had very cool tepee statues at them.   

I pulled into the Mitchell KOA Journey Campground a little after 3 pm.  It was a nice quiet campground and had some very nice showers.    I set up camp and piped some Neil Diamond songs thru my Bluetooth speakers while I fixed Kung Lao chicken wraps for dinner.  The campground was rather empty and there were no other tent campers that night.  Another camper from a couple of sites down walked over and asked me to turn up the music because he and his wife were huge Neil Diamond fans.  That's my kind of people!!

After dinner I took a shower. - I really liked the fancy sinks at this campground...

Finally I sat down and looked over brochures and my itinerary for the next day. After today I would start seeing and stopping at a lot of fun places and I was extremely excited about all that. The first 2 days were mostly driving days but from here on out I had a pretty loaded schedule.