Planes, Trains & Autos

Hey Guys!

We just returned home from a whirlwind trip to the Dakotas, Nebraska & Wyoming!

We drove 2k miles in 11 days!

I had always heard that the only thing to see in South Dakota was Mt Rushmore but obviously that is being said by people who don’t do their research!

As you all know, I am a big time researcher!

I spend countless hours putting together itineraries for our trips and it always pays off!

We get to see and do so much because of the time I invest!

We usually have very little down time but that’s the way we like it!

So, let’s get started.

Our trip dates were June 26th – July 6th, 2024.

Since we were flying out at 5 am on June 26th, we decided to stay in the newly opened Hilton hotel inside the Nashville airport.

The hotel has only been opened for four months so everything still smelled and looked new!

See reviews here

After being dropped off at the airport by our daughter, we headed inside the hotel to check in.

Our room was very nice!

After getting settled into our room, we headed to the rooftop where they had a pool, restaurant and outdoor seating where you could sit and watch the planes land!

It was so nice!

We sat up here for a while and watched the sunset!

Later we called it a night since we had to be up so early!

The next morning, we were up bright and early at 2:30 am!

I am a stickler about being at our gate way before our flight departs.

After getting ready and packed up, we headed downstairs to the lobby and checked out and then walked the short distance across the sky bridge to the inside of the airport.

It was so convenient staying at the hotel as it usually takes us a good hour from our house to drive to offsite parking and be shuttled to the airport!

Flying over the Badlands National Park

We had a short layover in Dallas and then later landed in Rapid City, SD where we picked up our Jeep Grand Cherokee that we had rented directly through Avis.

Tip: Another good option is Alamo...they had really good reviews. Whatever you do, rent early for the cheapest option because it’s expensive to rent here due to it being a regional airport!

Tip: My advice, you will want to look into getting full coverage insurance for your rental car because this area has a lot of hail storms! The extra insurance costs us around $350 but it gave us peace of mind!

At around 10 am, we were headed to our first stop of the day, Wall Drug Store.

Wall Drug is located approximately 1 hr from the airport.

You will see lots of signs advertising the drug store on your drive!

Wall Drug opened in 1931 by Ted and Dorothy Hustead.

The drug store struggled to stay in business for many years especially through the Great Depression until the Husteads came up with the idea of giving away free ice water to weary travelers.

Soon travelers would make a point to stop at Wall Drug to enjoy a refreshing break and they haven’t stopped coming to Wall Drug since.

The town of Wall is really cute! It’s like an old western town!

Wall has become a hub for tourism and is often referred to as the “Window to the West” or the “Gateway to the Badlands.”

Established as a railroad town for the Chicago/Northwestern Railroad system in 1907, Wall was barely more than a pit stop. By the 1930s, Wall housed a whopping 300 citizens, a hospital, hardware store, “community hut” and two banks.

Today, the population has nearly tripled in size to 876 residents.

They had a cool little post office

The drug store is more like an old shopping mall with lots of different shops and a restaurant.

This place is really crowded! They get up to 20k visitors a day during the summer months!

Tip: Click here for 10 interesting things about Wall Drug Store

We headed to the restaurant to have lunch as we had heard that the hot beef sandwiches were really good!

I ordered that while the hubby opted for a buffalo burger and of course, the free ice water that they still serve today!

The restaurant was really cool with lots of western memorabilia.

My hot beef sandwich was really good but I didn’t care for the buffalo burger…it was too dry!

We had also read all about the famous donuts that the drugstore served so we obviously had to try those too!

The donuts are made fresh daily. There are viewing windows where you can watch the employees making them but we missed that! 🙁

They have been using the same family recipe for generations!

After my lunch, I went back to the counter and purchased two of the donuts and a cup of the 5 cent coffee to go with my yummy dessert!

My hubby opted for a slice of homemade cherry pie instead….it was really good but would have been better had it been warmed up.

The donut was just ok to me….it would have been much better warmed up and it was more of a dense cake like consistency. Not bad but not what I was expecting.

The 5 cent coffee was good though! 🙂

The drug store has a map of the things you can see here and the one thing I had on the list to see was the huge statue of the jackalope!

They had a bunch of them hanging on the wall but we wanted a picture with the big one!

However, once we found it, we were so disappointed because they had it closed off because they were repainting it!!

We were so wanting a picture sitting on top of it!

And then we missed this too.….we can’t believe we missed the huge 40 ft wooden jackalope!

It even had stairs on the inside where you could walk up to the top of it!

I think we missed a lot of stuff here because we were in such a hurry to get to our next stop, the Badlands!

We did spot a buffalo though! 😉

The drug store also has a small store where you can buy some food items, health and beauty items and more but it was really expensive so we asked the employees where the nearest grocery store was so we could buy some water and snacks.

They told us the only grocery store, called Wall Food Center, was just a few minutes walk from the drug store.

We decided to go ahead and drive there so we could be on our way after picking up our groceries.

The store was small but had everything we needed but it was not cheap!

After making our purchases, we headed 10 mins down the road to the Badlands National Park.

Tip: Like many places we visited, you will have no cell service so, I highly recommend that you download offline google maps of all of the places you will be visiting….it was a lifesaver for us! Also, have plenty of gas and water….gas stations can be few and far between!

You will enter the park through the Pinnacles Entrance station and there is a $30 entrance fee for vehicles and it’s good for 7 days.

See a map of the park here

Our first stop was taking a picture in front of the national park sign!

The park was established as a national monument in 1939 and designated a national park in 1978.

We were given a map of the park at the entrance station and a warning that the prairie dogs inside the park had tested positive for the bubonic plague!!

Click here for 15 amazing things to do inside the park

Tip: You can download the Guide Along app for the Badlands and it will guide you through the park and tell you when to pull over….we have used it for many trips and it’s a great app!

After you enter the park, there will be a road to your right I believe, that’s called Sage Creek Rim Road.

This dirt road is only about 6.5 miles long but can take several hours to traverse, simply because there are so many scenic overlooks along the way.

The road conditions do vary, especially after a rain storm, so it is best to check the status when making plans.

There are 3 overlooks offering views of the Badlands Wilderness Area on this drive: Hay Butte Overlook, Wilderness Overlook, and Sage Creek Basin Overlook.

Roberts Prairie Dog Town is another stop along Sage Creek Rim Road where you can see those plaque infested prairie dogs!

The road is rough in some spots but this road gives you the best chance of seeing bison, prairie dogs, pronghorn, bighorn sheep and more.

We ended up seeing bison, prairie dogs, burrowing owls and pronghorn on this drive!

Tip: At the end of the road is a primitive campground. There is no water here, but they have picnic tables and shelter from the sun. Sites are free and are reserved on a first come first serve basis.

After driving all the way to Roberts Prairie Dog town, we turned around and headed back the way we came. However, you can continue along this road for another 18-19 miles and it will connect you to hwy 44 in Scenic.

You can also take 44 from Rapid City to the Badlands but it’s a gravel road. However, there is an old “ghost town” that you can see along the way and an old dinosaur statue. The ghost town is the town I just mentioned called, Scenic.

In 2010, 58 people lived in Scenic. The town was purchased in 2011 and is now abandoned.

Read more here about the route on 44

Tip: Most people will just drive the 39 mile loop road through the park and this is what I would recommend if you are short on time as I wasn’t overly impressed with Sage Creek Rd.

Our next stop was the Pinnacles Overlook.

This overlook is 0.2 miles from the parking lot. You will walk down a flight of steps to get to the overlook.

There are many viewpoints from this overlook so take your time to take in the views!

The views are beautiful but be very careful as the rocks here are very slick!! Make sure you are wearing good shoes!

Tip: There are rattlesnakes in this park so be on the lookout as we heard one rattling under a boardwalk!!

I purchased this hat before our trip and it was a lifesaver!!

After leaving this overlook, we continued our drive through the park.

It was incredible!

We pulled over along the road to take some pictures because the views were so beautiful!!

This was definitely one of our favorite stops!

My husband trying to be cool! 😉

We couldn’t get over how green it was in the bottom of the canyon because it was so hot and dry in the park!

Our rental car in the park.

Just look at these views!

Don’t waste your time with Sage Creek Rd when you could be seeing these views instead!

After this stop along the road, we continued our drive and arrived to my favorite area of the park called the Yellow Mounds!!

Click here for a list of all the overlooks in the park

We couldn’t believe all of the colors in the rocks! Yellows, purples, reds, etc!! It was incredible!

And there were wildflowers blooming all over the park which added to the park’s beauty!

I took so many pics in this area!!

Actually, on our first day, I took almost 11oo pics!! Yikes!

My hubby and I climbed a nearby hill and it made for some cool pics!!

Make sure not to miss this area or you will regret it!

After leaving here, we continued our drive through the park.

We stopped at another pullover where you could see the yellow mounds in the distance.

We stopped at the next overlook but I can’t remember the name of it.

Driving through the park

The next stop was the White River Valley Overlook.

This overlook provided an expansive view of the Badlands close to a set of tall formations, known as the Castle.

Continuing our drive through the park

Such incredible views!

After driving 22 miles of the loop, we came to our next stop which was the Cedar Pass Lodge where we would be spending our first of many nights in South Dakota.

We arrived approx. 30 mins past the check in time of 4.

We stayed in one of the cabins at the lodge and it was so nice!

We really enjoyed our stay here!

After getting settled into our room, we headed back out to drive more of the loop road.

The lodge was within walking distance of the Ben Reifel Visitor Center.

Driving to our next stop, the Notch Trail.

Tip: There are three trailheads located here: Notch, Window and Door ….Click here for hiking trails in the park

The window and door trails are less than a mile round trip and the notch trail is 1.5 miles round trip.

The notch trail is the most popular trail in the park.

The hike starts out on a wooden boardwalk.

Tip: Make sure to have on really sturdy shoes for this hike and watch out for rattlesnakes!

The boardwalk ends and you will be walking in the sand

After a short walk, you will come to a wooden ladder that you have to climb!

Tip: If you don’t want to climb the ladder, click here to read about an alternate route

Since this is such a popular hike, you will most likely have to wait for others to either climb down the ladder or climb up the ladder.

There was a family that was coming down the ladder when we arrived so we had to wait a few minutes before we could climb up.

Once they were down, we headed up!

Ok, it was a bit terrifying because I didn’t have the best shoes on!

After reaching the top of the ladder, we continued the trail.

However, it was short lived because this trail has very steep drop offs and it’s very slick!

For our own safety, we felt it was best to turn around and head back down the ladder!

Going down was much harder and scarier than going up!

My legs were sore for two days after climbing up and down the ladder!

The views were awesome so if you want to continue the trail, be very careful and have on good hiking shoes!

On the way back to the parking lot, we spotted some cliff swallow nests!

In summer, the insect-eating cliff swallows return from their wintering grounds in South America and make their mud nests in sheltered areas on the formations.

We spotted a small arch in the rocks on the way back.

After getting back to our car, we headed back to the lodge to have dinner.

This is the only place in the park to eat and the only lodging in the park.

The restaurant has a limited menu so if you want something else to eat, you can either bring in your own food or go back to Wall and eat.

Wall is 35 mins from the lodge.

We both decided to order the popular Indian tacos because I had read you just had to try them when visiting South Dakota!

The restaurant had amazing views of the Badlands!

The tacos were good but not as good as we thought they would be but when you’re hungry, a lot of things taste better than they are!

It was basically a taco salad on top of a piece of bread that had been fried.

After we ate, we headed into the gift shop that was attached to the restaurant to find a tshirt.

We then headed back to our cabin to relax for a while.

A bit later, we decided to go watch the sunset at one of the overlooks.

Click here for the best places to watch the sunset and sunrise

Driving through the park headed to an overlook

We stopped at the Bigfoot Pass Overlook as this looked like the best place to watch the sunset.

This marks Chief Spotted Elk’s (also known as Bigfoot) journey leading a group of Lakota through the Badlands. This journey would end with the Wounded Knee Massacre.

There was a boardwalk here that led to a bench so we headed to the end of the boardwalk to sit and watch the sunset.

Note: This is the boardwalk that had the rattlesnake under it!

The views here were spectacular!

At one point, we were the only ones here!

There was cacti blooming all over the park!

I snapped a picture of the sun lighting up the clouds!

The sunset was incredible!

I was so glad that we had decided to drive the 20 mins from the lodge to this lookout in hopes to catch the sunset!

My hubby watching the sunset.

And us enjoying the sunset together.

I think I took 100 pics of just the sunset!

Later, we headed back to the car.

Driving back to the lodge

We had hoped for clear skies since the park is a dark sky park but sadly, it was too cloudy to see anything! 🙁

Tip: We had this overlook on our list too but didn’t make it

Tip: Badlands National Park offers stargazing events called Night Sky Viewings every night in the spring, summer, and fall. At these viewings, park rangers and volunteers use powerful laser pointers to show and describe different constellations, planets, and other objects in the night sky.

After arriving back to our cabin, we called it a night!

Thanks for reading!

For those who don’t like to read Click here and scroll to the bottom of the page to see a very short version of my itinerary 

Stay tuned for Day 2! – Update: Read Day 2 here, Day 3 here, Day 4 here, Day 5 here, Day 6 here, Day 7 here, Day 8 here , Day 9 here, Day 10 here & Day 11 here

South Dakota – Badlands, Keystone, Hill City & Sturgis – Day 2 – June 2024

North Dakota – Theodore Roosevelt National Park & Medora – Day 3 – June 2024

North Dakota – Theodore Roosevelt National Park & Medora – Day 4 – June 2024

South Dakota – Deadwood – Day 5 – June 2024

South Dakota – Devils Tower & Spearfish Canyon – Day 6 – July 2024

South Dakota – Custer State Park & Mt Rushmore – Day 7 – July 2024

South Dakota – Custer State Park, Crazy Horse & Custer – Day 8 – July 2024

Nebraska – Carhenge, Scotts Bluff & Chimney Rock – Day 9 – July 2024

South Dakota – Hot Springs, Wind Cave Ntl Park, Keystone & Rapid City – Day 10 – July 2024

South Dakota – Rapid City – Day 11 – July 2024

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