Day 5
Campsite West of Sioux Falls SD> Cross Missouri River, SD> Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, SD> Badlands National Park, SD> Black Hills National Forest, SD> Mt. Rushmore, SD> Crazy Horse National Monument, SD> End in Campsite Keyhole State Park Wyoming
So just as the day before we set out bright and early to get to Mount Rushmore and set camp somewhere around there. We thought this was going to be a fairly interesting drive but that we would blow through it to get toward Yellowstone as quick as possible. However as we crossed the Missouri River we quickly noticed a change in the landscape. The area around us was getting more and more unfamiliar and thus exactly what we were looking for. As we crossed through the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands (without seeing a single buffalo) we began to see the odd formations of the Badlands National Park just south of us. We couldn’t resist touring it and we definitely made the right decision. We took an hour long detour through the Badlands, buying our national park pass : ), and found that the Badlands were absolutely incredible. The pictures in this blog truly can’t do it justice.
Once through the Badlands we drove to the Black Hills National Forest, home of Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse National Monument. Mount Rushmore was pretty cool, we took some funny pics enjoyed our time but overall thought it was a little overhyped.
We continued another few miles through the forest to Crazy Horse National Monument. Crazy Horse is a very large mountain carving but it wasn’t finished and was really not much to see.
At this point it was already a fairly long day so we decided to find camping and drove toward Wyoming. We quickly realized that while in Wyoming the closest campsite on our way was 45 miles away so we drove on and it was very worth it. We managed to end up in Keyhole State Park and Reservoir, clearly the best campsite either one of us have been to. We simply parked by the water and we set our fire, cooked burgers and watched the best stars we’d ever seen right on the water with almost no one around. A great end to Day 5.
Next stop: YELLOWSTONE!!!
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