The story of our trip to The Midwest

Day 1 of 10
We've been wanting to do this for a while( especially during our trips cross country from NY to CA) always wondering what was down there that looked so rugged and mountainous. So on a beautiful Aug afternoon in 08 we landed in Rapid city,SD with our bags and baggage filled with a variety of warm and summer clothes & ready made food for our 10 day trip( we are vegetarians and were quite sure this part of the country wouldn't have anything for us to chow on) to begin our journey through the very same rugged landscape.

Excessive heat and warm winds blowing off the dry landscape greeted us as we landed at Rapid City Regional Airport. On landing what immediately caught our eye was the number of bikers around so much so that we even found bikes being sold inside the airport terminals. It turned out that the Annual Black Hills motorcycle Rally at Sturgis, SD was on, hence the scores of motorcyclists from throughout the country.

We get into our ride, which for this trip turned out to be a Subaru Tribeca ,and headed forth on I 90E to our first destination-Badlands National Park. On our way we stopped at the city of Wall,SD as all The Wall Drug Store billboards on I90 got the better of us . It turns out- The Wall drug store is a sprawling shopping mall consisting of a drug store, gift shop, restaurants and various other stores. Unlike a traditional shopping mall, all the stores at Wall Drug operate under a single entity instead of being individually run stores. After checking out most of the stores and enjoying the ice water & hand made ice creams at Wall drug we moved on to our destination- The Badlands National Park.

We took Rt.240 off of I90 to enter through Pinnacles Entrance of the National park. Badlands National Park in Southwest South Dakota is like no other place either of us had ever seen in our life.These 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States was what can be best described as the surface of mars. I believe it was originally designated as a national Monument but almost 5 decades later re-designated as a National Park. We stayed the night in a beautiful cabin by the Ben Reifel Visitor center. That night after heating the first of our ready made food in hot water from the coffee maker and eating it, we attended the Ranger program on the night sky at the Amphitheater. It turns out Badlands is one of the very few places in the US with absolute darkness hence the night sky is simply breath taking.. After hours of spotting (with naked eye) the space station, satellites ,galaxies and planets and stars we retired for the night back into our cabin.


Day 2 of 10

The following morning we left bright and early (but not before heating one more of the ready made food packets) towards The Minuteman Missile Visitor Contact Station which is off of RT 240N Near the Badlands Trading post.The Launch Facility Delta-09 (the missile silo) itself is few miles away located on the south side of I90, exit 116. Turn south on to the county road and all you see is something that looks like an antenna housed near it is a remote underground silos which could be launched by crews stationed at launch control centers miles away. We were lucky to have met with a Park ranger here who was apparently one of the engineers that serviced these silos when it was in active duty. A few pictures and questions later we moved onwards to Mount Rushmore. We grabbed our lunch(ready made food we had heated earlier in the day) on the drive to Mt.Rushmore. After an hr at Rushmore we swung by another monument that is still under construction- The Crazy Horse Memorial.

Crazy Horse Memorial is the world's largest mountain carving in progress, which when completed will be 641 feet long and 563 feet high.The Memorial's mission is to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of North American Indians. After this short stop we headed onto our next destination- The Jewel Cave National Monument via the beautiful scenic Custer State Park and needles highway.

The Needles Highway stretches through granite structures and pine covered mountains with so much scenery to absorb, hairpin curves, pigtail bridges, and narrow tunnels that wind in and around massive granite pinnacles and rugged terrain. Views of a variety of spires and outcroppings, makes this highway one of the most scenic drives in America. Floating in the beauty of our surroundings, we landed at the Jewel Cave National Monument , which is the second longest cave in the world at around 146miles. We took the ranger guided tour which was fairly strenuous especially walking up and down 700+ stair steps despite the elevator ride into the cave.

That night we were retired for the day in Casper ,WY in the lap of modern luxury in one of the hotel chains:)