On the Wildlife Loop of Custer State Park - taken on our first trip in 2017
Exploring North and South Dakota
This will be our fourth fall road trip. We were unable to travel last year due to COVID. Now we are both vaccinated and when we started planning the trip in July things were opening up. However since then thanks to the Delta variant COVID cases are rising again. We are still going since the vaccine rate is higher and the rate of COVID is lower in South Dakota and North Dakota than in in Tennessee, the odds are that we are safer there than here. Another thing in our favor is that we are going to do see nature not cities in a sparsely populated area after Labor Day when most of the tourist attractions are closed.
On our first road trip in 2017 we traveled west to Glacier National Park. We spent one day traveling through South Dakota from Sioux City, Iowa to Custer State park with a brief stop at Badlands National Park. We did spend two nights and one day in Custer. We did visit Mt. Rushmore and Devi's Tower but did not take the time to really see the Black Hills and other national parks. We found this area very interesting and wished that we had longer to spend. We have also never been to North Dakota.
On this trip we will travel to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, our furthermost point north and west. We will also visit the Black Hills, Custer State Park, and the Badlands National Park, staying several days in each place. We will also follow the Lewis and Clark Trail along the Missouri River for the last part of our trip. It should take us about 2 days of direct driving to get to South Dakota and 2 days to return home. Our total trip will last 30 days.
These are our plans for now. You can see a brief overview in spreadsheet format on the "Plans in Brief" page and more detailed plans on the "Itinerary" page. On the trip I hope to post something each day on the Journal page.
We are home now and the site is no longer password protected. I will be working over the next few weeks to update everything with suggestions for anyone who wants to visit the Dakotas and information about what we actually did. You can find my best images from the trip on The Dakotas page of my portfolio.
On our first road trip in 2017 we traveled west to Glacier National Park. We spent one day traveling through South Dakota from Sioux City, Iowa to Custer State park with a brief stop at Badlands National Park. We did spend two nights and one day in Custer. We did visit Mt. Rushmore and Devi's Tower but did not take the time to really see the Black Hills and other national parks. We found this area very interesting and wished that we had longer to spend. We have also never been to North Dakota.
On this trip we will travel to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, our furthermost point north and west. We will also visit the Black Hills, Custer State Park, and the Badlands National Park, staying several days in each place. We will also follow the Lewis and Clark Trail along the Missouri River for the last part of our trip. It should take us about 2 days of direct driving to get to South Dakota and 2 days to return home. Our total trip will last 30 days.
These are our plans for now. You can see a brief overview in spreadsheet format on the "Plans in Brief" page and more detailed plans on the "Itinerary" page. On the trip I hope to post something each day on the Journal page.
We are home now and the site is no longer password protected. I will be working over the next few weeks to update everything with suggestions for anyone who wants to visit the Dakotas and information about what we actually did. You can find my best images from the trip on The Dakotas page of my portfolio.