Day 5: Wow, South Dakota. Just WOW

One of Our Most Favorite States

We have heard some people describe driving through South Dakota as boring. I believe they must have stayed on I-90 and only seen the Black Hills from a distance.

There is absolutely no way that a person could take SD Highway 87 N through Custer State Park, aka Needles Highway, and be anything but awestruck and stunned.

First, A Little History

The Black Hills in South Dakota is the heart of the land stolen from the Lakota, some of their most sacred ground. And when I say stolen, I mean it was guaranteed to them in a treaty that is still valid, and then we sent colonizers in and protected them with the U.S. Army, leading to the slaughter of thousands of Lakota. It is not a complicated issue with multiple sides; it was perhaps the most egregious theft of all the crimes we perpetrated against the people who lived in the lands that the government lusted after from coast to coast.

The U.S. government has even admitted guilt in this theft and has offered the Lakota over $2bn for the crime. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled “A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.” The government awarded the Lakota $102 million. The U.S. Treasury holds the settlement in trust and has a mandate to maximize returns on it, explaining its amazing growth, the equivalent of 7.23% compounded annually for 43 years, now totaling over $2 billion.

But the Lakota have refused the money.

They just want their land back.

LAND BACK is what they and their protesting supporters chant.

It is a fascinating, tragic, embarrassing, infuriating story, of the way our government stole from, massacred, and dispersed the Lakota. If you want to read more about it, I highly recommend this book by Jeffrey Ostler, The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, which is part of The Penguin Library of American Indian History.

I think everyone in America should visit the Black Hills in South Dakota, and I think everyone in America should know the history of this land and respect the people to whom it rightfully belongs.

We started the day, ironically enough, in what the Lakota sometimes refer to as the White Hills, or the Badlands; this harsh and beautiful and unforgiving land is part of where we forced a large part of the Lakota to relocate. A part of Badlands National Park is co-managed by the Oglala Lakota, as the part occupies part of the Pine Ridge Reservation (you should have recognized Pine Ridge, it is the home of Wounded Knee, the deadliest mass shooting in American history, where the U.S. Army massacred nearly 300 Lakota) which is the home of the Oglala Lakota Nation. It is also the part of Badlands National Park, the part that belongs to the Lakota, that was used by the U.S. military in WWII as a bomber training ground, and is filled with debris and unexploded ordinance, that the U.S. government continues to drag its feet about and very slowly is cleaning up.

Our day began in Cedar Ridge campground, on the other side of Badlands National Park.

The Morning

After a surprise overnight thunderstorm kept waking us up for hours with all of its glorious drama, we slept in a little bit and got up to break camp with a quick breakfast. The plan was to get out and get some hiking in around Badlands National Park before it got too hot… but it got too hot too fast.

We left our campsite around 10:17 and headed for the Notch Trail, or the “ladder hike”.

All five of us managed to hike out to “the ladder”, and the boys climbed it and hiked it bit along the ridge. Julien was overheated and went back to the car with Angie. The heat was impressive and oppressive, our water went quickly, and for safety, we called the boys back via walkie-talkie.

The National Park Service had a pair of SAR (Search And Rescue) Rangers at the trailhead with free ice water and stern warnings to drink water and look out for heat stroke. It was a super legit risk, and more than we needed. We got enough of a hike in and decided to drive around the park, pull into some scenic lookouts, and then exit Badlands for this year and head out on our way.

The Day

We left Badlands National Park in the early afternoon and stopped at the Delta 09 Missile Silo, also managed by the National Park Service. This is the second of three parts of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site; yesterday we visited the Welcome Center, then this is this actual missile silo with a missile in it, and there is also a tour of the underground launch center but tickets sell out months in advance. Maybe next year for that part.

Leaving the exhibit, we switched drivers, and Angie drove the rest of the day. I did some work from the passenger seat and struggled to get photos uploaded to yesterday’s blog as 5G and LTE coverage was very spotty.

We were headed next to Devils Tower, but saw that there were severe thunderstorms expected there for the afternoon, so we decided to go explore a part of the Black Hills that we had never seen before. It was going to add several hours to the day’s driving and would get us to our campsite after sunset, but we hoped it would be worth it.

Worth it is an understatement. This “side quest” became, as these things usually do, the highlight of the trip so far.

Angie plotted a course into Custer State Park so that we could drive SD Highway 87, or Needles Highway.

Of all the many tens (hundreds?) of thousands of miles I have driven in almost every state of this country, this road is, BY FAR, the most extraordinary drive I have ever experienced. It was rolling switchbacks, up and down and sometimes through 16′ wide tunners carved into the Black Hills. You are literally almost brushing against the rock on one side, and staring across a 6,000 foot drop on the other.

It was a pure dopamine rush, every mile.

Go here. Please. Everyone.

The Evening

When we finally left the Black Hills and got back on I-90, it was not long until we said goodbye to South Dakota and crossed over into Wyoming. I think most of us in our family would agree that three of the most wonderful and jaw-dropping states in America are South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. And for the next month, that’s where we will be.

We raced across Wyoming to get to Devils Tower before it got too dark. While are competent enough to set up camp in the dark, we try to avoid that when we can.

We camped in a KOA that is right next to Devils Tower National Monument, with commanding views of America’s first National Monument from everywhere. In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever had a cooler campsite:

KOAs can be really nice, or really sketchy. This one, Devils Tower / Black Hills Journey KOA, is fantastic. The usually provided some much-needed amenities on a long road trip, including a pool, playground, laundry, and most importantly — showers. This one also has a restaurant and gift shop and mini golf course, as well as a nightly outdoor viewing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind which, while we did not have the time to partake, I give them full points for their program.

Boyo and I set up the tent, Angie got dinner started, and Nephew took Julien to the playground. Within an hour we were all eating fresh, homemade tacos, and within 2 hours we were all showered and zipping into sleeping bags.

The weather looks to be fantastic overnight; 0% chance of rain, and temps in the 50s.

Looking forward to a crisp night of sleep followed by some hikes around Devil’s Tower tomorrow morning.