Heading West

Harrison Malone
Jul 10, 2017 · 6 min read

Three weeks ago I had another awesome travel opportunity, this time heading west to South Dakota. I was lucky to meet Debora (my neighbour) as well as two friends of hers as they were able to share the driving duties. Whilst I could definitely drive the fact that you’re on the opposite side of the road and without insurance isn’t really something I’d like to risk. So I was a happy passenger and played the role of an annoying kid. Plus I got to be the car DJ for most of the ride.

So we left Minneapolis on the Friday evening after work and headed west on the I-90. Driving distances on the Friday night and Saturday morning were very manageable as it was about 5 hours to our overnight stop in Mitchell at a dodgy Super-8 with a broken fly wire window. We all slept in one room that night and it was about $25 a person which we were pretty happy with. I also remember the pink sunset on this drive as I took a fair bit of Instagram story footage.

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn and were greeted with a surprisingly decent breakfast complete with waffles. Who would have thought Super-8s do deluxe breakfasts. It was then a 3 hour drive from Mitchell to the Badlands National Park. On this drive you really noticed how flat and sparse South Dakota is. Just huge green fields with very few trees and no hills so you can see miles into the horizon. It reminded me of many Jack Kerouac quotes from his book “On the Road” about how the world opens up as you head west. The sky was this beautiful pale blue and we charged along the highway at 80 miles an hour.

And then all of a sudden the landscape changes and you start seeing small rock formations right next to the I-90. And then you see big rock formations and then you’re in the Badlands. One of the guys I was travelling with had a yearly national parks pass so we were able to get into the Badlands for free. After passing through the admission area it was about a 10 minute drive to the Big Badlands Overlook. It’s now maybe my favourite scenic lookout spot I’ve ever seen and I’ve seen a few doozies in my lifetime! It was stunning natural beauty from all angles. We were perched on top of a vast field of rock formations that were jutting out of the ground. But these rocks were smooth and rounded, kind of like a set of surf rolling in. They all had the iconic red lines that circumnavigated around their middle regions. How these red lines got there I do not know but damn was it beautiful. The places that I guess you could compare it to are the Grampians or Uluru (even though I’ve never been there) in terms of it being this huge rock formation and then literally just miles of flat green fields around it. This lookout alone fulfilled everything I’d hoped for. We all took a lot of photos as we each had DSLRs or mirrorless cameras. At the Big Badlands Overlook you can climb and be a bit of a daredevil on some of the steep cliff edges with giant drops right next to you with a slip up. That got the heart pumping.

After we were happy with the photos we went on 2 hikes that I highly recommend: Notch Trail and Saddle Pass. Notch Trail was about 1.5kms through a canyon and climbing up and down a wooden staircase to access the high ground. We were like kids again playing hide and seek in the deep crevices on the rock faces. Saddle Pass was a much shorter trail distance wise but it had a huge elevation change. It was actually quite hairy coming down due to the steepness and crumbling rock. I took a lot of photos on both of the trails as again the lookouts were stunning. The distances of the round trip hikes were also exactly what I was looking for. Not too far but enough to get a sweat up. At this point of the day I realised I hadn’t applied any sunscreen (a classic rookie error) and my neck and face were lobster red.

We needed a bit of a sit down and some food so we drove about 20 minutes out of the Badlands to Wall and the famous Wall Drug. There are about a million billboards on the I-90 advertising the joint from 300 miles away so you can’t miss it. I didn’t buy any tourist junk (there is a lot of it and it’s kind of tempting) and just settled for food and 5 cent coffee (which is actually like 60 cents plus 5 cent refills… omg). We then got back on the road out to the Badlands again. To greet us we had an orange sunset slowing sinking below the red and brown rocks. We were all in a good mood and basically had this whole car park area to ourselves so we got up to some mischief. I was also happy with the photos I took at this time because the lighting was perfect. We then drove a bit more before arriving at another isolated car park and waiting for the stars to come out. There is barely any artificial light in this part of the world so the sky twinkles with stars and galaxy’s far away. It was peaceful lying on the cold concrete with good mates and just staring upwards, with no care in the world for time and stresses back in the city.

Happy with our day in the Badlands we drove an hour to Rapid City and checked in to our motel around midnight. The girls then made a run to Walgreens to pick up the ingredients for S’mores which we had in our motel room kitchen (we got an upgrade).

Day 2

The next morning we woke early as we didn’t have as much time for touristy activity. We needed to leave Rapid City at around 3PM to get back to Minneapolis at a reasonable time. After a quick breakfast we drove straight up to the Black Hills for Mount Rushmore. It was surprisingly only a short wait to park and access the viewing area so that was good news. It was also really nice soft lighting on the 4 presidents so I was very happy with the photos I got. It is one of the most iconic tourist sights in the world so I’m happy to say I’ve been there.

We were then in for long hours of driving for the rest of the day. We headed south in the Black Hills towards Custer National Park. This is famed for its up close encounters with bison and other native animals, basically an American safari. We pretty much immediately saw some wild bison in a field however they were kind of far away. It wasn’t until we got some advice from a park ranger after some more driving before we found the big herd. We bounced on a dirt road through vast grassy prairies and pine trees before spotting the grazing bison. They literally just chill on the road and bring cars to a standstill but this is good because everyone can take photos. However, you definitely want to keep your windows and doors closed as these bison would mess you up if provoked. Some of them would probably be around the weight of a small car so you get the picture. But on this occasion they were peaceful. Bison surrounded our vehicle and I could have opened the window and patted a bunch of them. After inching our way free from the herd we drove our of Custer. My checklist of Badlands, Rushmore and bison was fully checked off so it was time for a McDonalds run and then 12 hours of driving to get home.

Whilst I was only a passenger I was moody about having to work the next day. I just stayed quiet in the back seat and snoozed most of the way. We got home at around 2AM with cramped legs and dull headaches but it was totally worth it. I loved the weekend and thank the Portuguese and French crew for driving me up there.


If you’d like to view all of my South Dakota photography head over to my Instagram.

Harrison Malone

Written by

teacher @CoderAcademy_au and runner

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