It was another leisurely get-up this morning, but I was still up relatively early. We planned on leaving late because we wanted to visit Mt. Rushmore after dark. A few friends suggested we go after dark. We would leave down the road we had arrived on the first day to see things now in the daylight. I tucked in behind a Corrola with a Texas plate and put the adaptive cruise on to take in the sights better. This was the first Texas plate we’d seen. Mostly Minnesota, Iowa, and, surprisingly, many Utah. Funny enough, a purple 30s model Plymouth pulled over to let the Corolla and us around; Texas plates again, three of us in a row!
I’d had a big cup of black coffee, and then Amanda fixed us oat milk honey lattes. I asked Amanda, who had been quiet if her latte hadn’t kicked in as we exited to head to Starbucks. She said, “I haven’t been able to get a word in.”
I was pretty chatty with all my caffeine intake, I guess! After that quick stop, we hopped on the interstate to head to Wall. We would discover that the town gets its name from how the Badlands make a wall with its terrain.
The town of Wall is known for the Wall Drug Store and its free ice water and 5-cent coffee. They advertise like Buc-ee’s with tons of billboards along the roads throughout South Dakota; I even noticed them in Iowa on the way from Omaha. Our app tour guide said we’d need at least an hour here, which I thought was crazy until we got inside. This place was huge and had a ton of shops; it was like a mall of tourist trap stores!
I picked up a couple of stickers, and Amanda was drawn to a Native American section in one of the many jewelry stores. I told her a couple of days ago, “We aren’t going to buy turquoise in South Dakota when we go to New Mexico and Colorado multiple times a year!” Of course, she fell in love with a piece. Surprisingly, it was an excellent deal, with 25% off its already low price. We shop for turquoise a lot, so I know the prices in the Southwest are good. She usually picks jewelry with a price tag, making me wonder if she even knows how much money we make! We didn’t pick it up, but I returned to look at it and told the cashier it was Amanda’s heartiversary tomorrow. I was buttering her up to ask if the price had any wiggle room. A horse and cattle trader raised me, so what do you expect? It didn’t work, and it seemed like she’d gotten that question before.
When we entered the park, our tour guide, whom we call Steve, said it was worth going down a dirt road a few miles to a prairie dog town. Amanda loves these little guys! We saw a few buffalo grazing and chewing cud on the plains side of the wall. The road had grand views over the badlands coming back. It was lunchtime, so we pulled into a spot I’d spied out on the way up.
With room only for one vehicle, we’d have a little privacy for lunch. A single heavy-breathing bison was lying in the tall grass across us. We’d seen so many in Custer and Wind Cave I didn’t think twice about it. Turns out everyone else hadn’t seen as many as up and stopped for photo ops. It was not as quiet of a place as I had planned, everyone watching the buffalo on one side and me stuffing my face on the other. Crispy rice salad was on the menu, made with leftover paella rice and loads of veggies. I also brought leftover butter lettuce from the sandwiches to make lettuce wraps. I am glad I did because it was easier to pile my sriracha on each bite.
We stopped at the top overlook once we got back on the pavement. We chose not to walk all the stairs, saving Amanda’s knees for a later hike. Our previous views on the dirt road were just as good, if not better, and less peopley. We got a good shot of Amanda’s license plate, which is all about transplants and even has a transplant-related bracket.
We lack only a bighorn sheep and elk to see all the top critters in South Dakota. The goat we’d seen on Needles Highway turned out to be a snow mountain goat, a rare sighting. We rounded a corner and checked the bighorn off the list. There were three grazing on the edge of a cliff. I got out to get a better shot as one descended on the edge. I love watching them traverse the edge of cliffs so effortlessly. We saw another not far from the three he was standing off in the distance on the top of a rock formation.
We both hopped out to get pictures. As I took landscape pictures, Amanda walked to the edge to get a better shot of the majestic bighorn. I heard her scream and saw her run back towards the car. She walked up on a rattlesnake, only alerted by his rattling. She was completely freaked out, and her heart didn’t know what to do. Thank God she didn’t get bit; it was a close call, too close. After typing that out, I’m sitting here praising God that we aren’t in a hospital right now!
We made a few more stops at some grand vistas to take it all in. And just as important to use the facilities. We didn’t want to hunt for a tree today because there were none! There was a lovely spot where we took some cookie pictures. Amanda wanted me in a cookie selfie since this one had our Unabandoned Heat logo on it.
We also saw a coyote up close and watched him for a bit. I caught a few good videos and pictures. I moved out of the way of an Escalade we’d been playing hopscotch with for a while and missed the best shot, though. As I pulled over, the coyote jumped in the air and pounced down hard on the ground after some prey. I don’t think he got anything, but it was so unique to see that in person. However, he did catch something later and munched it down. Probably a baby prairie dog; just don’t tell Amanda!
We arrived at the visitors center just before it closed by about 15 minutes. They were ready to go home. As we walked in, they announced it was closing soon. We grabbed a few stickers and a shopping bag; we have many park shopping bags. At ten minutes until closing, the light dimmed; they weren’t kidding about getting home!
There were a few trials I had down to hike. Our tour guide narrowed it down when he mentioned the best was one on my list. It was less than a mile, so we gave it a shot. It was a boardwalk till it wasn’t, then turned into a rough terrain where you had to step over small slot like mini canyons. The trail wasn’t well-worn either, and it was hard to tell where to go. So we only made it a little way in. The terrain reminded me of the 80s movie Enemy Mine, a favorite of mine as a kid, which featured Dennis Quaid and Louis Gosset Jr., who played an alien. We took a few photos and headed back out.
That was the last stop in the park; the next stop was the Minuteman Missile Silo and launch control. A relic of the cold war, there were many launch control centers and nuclear missile silos in the area. I was excited about visiting some of these sites. Born under the Regan presidency, I did not live through much of the Cold War, but I was old enough to live through the ‘tear this wall down’ era and all the movies! I was a war movie kid, and in the 80s, there were many of them about the Cold War, along with some of my favorite James Bond movies. So, needless to say, the nuclear silos were very intriguing to me and felt kind of like part of my childhood, I guess. Sadly, they were closed on Sundays and Mondays, and we didn’t get to go.
From there, we went back to the Wall Drug Store. It was potty break time, and I had a piece of turquoise to get Amanda for her heartiversary price! My return route was changed, with time running a little later with the trip back to Wall. I had wanted to go through the Interior and back to Rapid City via Highway 44 on the park’s south side. I like loops not to traverse the same roads, but we had to skip this one. The sun setting behind the distant Black Hills made for a pretty drive back to Rapid City, though.
We had one stop at Target to grab a few things for dinner and some over-the-counter meds Amanda ran out of. We knew the way; it was next to the morning Starbucks stop. After that, it was a stop by Mt. Rushmore for a night viewing. The site was almost desolate, with only a few cars in the garage. Once we reached the viewing platform at the end of a wide walkway flanked by all the state flags, we had a great view of the brightly lit presidents. There were more people there than I expected with the lack of cars, but still only a handful.
Viewing at night was a treat, but conveying the majesty or even a good view via a picture is complex. We got a few shots and videos and, of course, a selfie. The visitors center was supposed to be open, but it was closed. The bathroom lights were even turned off, with no switch in sight. When we approached the bathrooms, a man was standing at the women’s door with his phone flashlight on, waiting for his wife to come out! We left a different way, leading by a side profile of the side of George Washington’s face. There was a pullout, so we stopped to get a shot. I also took an interesting shot of the stars behind the monument. It seemed rays of light were shooting through the sky.
We decided to skip the dinner I had planned and just cheat and eat quesadillas with some corn crackers, salsa, and oat milk queso. After I got another load of firewood, we dawned our robes, sat by the fire, and had our snack. Then, off to bed with an early rise to hit Spearfish Canyon and many waterfalls.