After a couple of days in Billings, Montana we moved on to our penultimate stop in a town called Rapid City. This marks our move into our fifth US state of the trip as well, South Dakota. It was a long drive to get there but we made a stop on the way at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

This marks the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn “on June 25–26, 1876, where a combined force of Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors decisively defeated the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry Regiment led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer”. It was an interesting brief stop to see some of the sites and monuments of the battle.

Don’t worry Frank, we didn’t see any Rattlesnakes anywhere, so this blog post is snake-free!

We arrived quite late in to Rapid City and our Airbnb, too late even to go and find a local brewery so that will have to wait for another day!

Badlands National Park

On our first full day in the area we drove to Badlands National Park, about 1hr 30 away but a great day out. There’s only a few hikes at this park but there is also a long scenic drive with loads of scenic stops too, so we made a full day of it – hiking in the morning and then a long-ish drive back home via all the scenic stops.

The scenery was really different and unusual, unlike any of the other NP’s we’ve been to over the last couple of years. Parts of some of the trails were on boardwalks, but other parts you could go “off-route” and follow coloured marker posts. There were a lot of rattlesnake warning posters dotted around and I swear we could hear them rattling as we wandered around…it may have been other creatures though and fortunately we didn’t see any. Apparently they occupy crevices and holes so we made sure we didn’t dwell near any of those.

The drive back through the park involves several dirt roads as well so it gave us a chance to test out the “off-road” mode of our 4 wheel drive SUV. We were literally leaving dust behind us as we went and the back of our car was filthy when we got home.

One of the longer hikes we did in the morning was called the ‘Saddle Pass trail’ and it involved a fairly steep and slippery climb up the rocks until you reached the top, where there was good views down to the valley, and also a flatter circular route at the top which was more grassland / open plains.

After that hike, we drove the scenic road up to higher elevation and stopped at various look out points on the way, including…

White River Overlook. And….

The aptly named ‘Yellow Mounds overlook’. And….

Pinnacle Point, the highest point in the park with views out over the whole area.

As I said, parts of the drive back were on gravel roads as you entered the “Wilderness area” where there was plenty of wildlife spotting. We saw deer, prairie dogs and bison….still no snakes, don’t worry Frank!

We’re off to Mount Rushmore tomorrow so more pics and updates coming soon.

Si