Day 1: LaCrosse, IN to Devils Tower, WY
Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse
We hit the road at 1:30 a.m., easily driving through the Chicago area without seeing much traffic. A couple driving shifts and 12 hours later we arrived at Badlands National Park.
Along the road that runs through the park we saw prairie dogs and mountain goats. We also checked out the visitor center and hiked 0.7 miles on the Saddle Pass Trail to get some great views of the park.
Next stop was the Delta-09 Missile Silo, but when we arrived they had already closed for the day.
At this point we were about an hour behind schedule, but still on track to make the campground at Devils Tower before it was completely dark.
On our way into Rapid City, SD the radio station we were listening to was interrupted by an emergency weather broadcast that said a severe thunderstorm with golf ball sized hail was heading towards Rapid City (side note: we’ve found that in some places we can only choose between three radio stations — oldies, classical music, and NPR). We decided we would park near a gas station and wait out the storm close to a place we could shelter the car from hail if necessary. The hail never actualized where we were, but we still lost about another hour as the storm went through.
With the storm past us we continued on to Mount Rushmore where we hiked the Presidential Trail and took plenty of pictures.
Next stop was Crazy Horse. For some reason we were under the impression that you could drive up to the monument without paying any fees. In reality they charge $28 per carload. When we got to the gate and learned this we just asked to pull forward and turn around — we would just take pictures from the highway, but the friendly lady working at the gate told us to wait a minute.
She walked back to the gatehouse and returned a moment later with four free tickets. The Crazy Horse Foundation had apparently received a donation that enabled them to give out a few free tickets at their discretion.
We walked throughout the museum and took pictures of Crazy Horse. The bus trips up to the mountain had been cancelled due to weather, but the outdoor observation platform was still open.
From Crazy Horse we drove two more hours to Devils Tower. Due to previous setbacks we didn’t arrive until around 10:00 p.m., which was long after sunset. Tired and reluctant to set the tent up when rain was expected and we would later need to dry the tent, we opted to just sleep in the car. This worked because we were tired, not because a 2007 Ford Focus is a spacious vehicle that is easy to sleep in (it’s not).
We settled on parking in a pull out on the highway with a nice view of Devils Tower. As we parked for the night the moon lit up the outline of the mountain.
In total, we drove 1,175 miles for Day 1 and traveled through 6 states. Tomorrow we drive another 7 hours through Wyoming to get to Yellowstone National Park.
