August 27, 2020
Wall, South Dakota
Sleepy Hollow Campground Wall, South Dakota
I woke up in the middle of the night when I heard the door to the RV close. I then heard the pattering of rain. We were so tired last evening when we got back from Mount Rushmore that we did not put the top back on the Jeep. Tim heard the rain and got up. It is a good thing that he did. At about 5:30 in the morning we had a dousing thunderstorm complete with hail!
The morning was bright and sunny. We were heading today toward Badlands National Park in Wall, South Dakota. We had the choice of the expedient interstate highway route or the less traveled scenic route. As we normally do (when we have time) we chose the pretty drive.
As we drove on, our GPS rerouted us. We looked and we were supposed to turn onto a gravel road. We skipped the first one and then we were rerouted again to another gravel road. This time we looked and could see that it was 43 miles on the paved road or a much shorter 23 miles if we followed GPS. Of course here is where we had no phone service. The road was initially fairly decent. About 4 miles later it was gravel washboard. Speeds reduced to 10 miles or less per hour. We stopped for lunch and to consider our options.
We kept moving forward and the road took us through the national park for a short distance. We passed a lone bison almost immediately and then lots of prairie dog towns.
We were relieved to finally meet pavement.
It was nice to rest, do some laundry, and work on the blog this afternoon.
I really wanted to go and see Wall Drug. It is the famous spot in town. I was hesitant though and in the end decided not to go…NO ONE wears masks here and it freaks me out more than a little bit…so we try to stay away from people as much as we can.
This evening we got carryout from 3 Amigos Cantina and took it with us to go and scope out ‘THE WALL”. Our good friend, Tom, told us all about this place. Here, is free dispersed camping with incredible views of the Badlands. We will move tomorrow morning.
