Operation Windmills: South Dakota Road Trip

For the 4th of July weekend, Rick and I took a week long road trip to South Dakota.

We spent the first night of our trip visiting Amy in Vermillion before continuing west the next morning. We arrived at the Badlands National Park around mid-morning on July 4th. The temperature was around 105F. We bought and packed 24 bottles of water and headed out into the backcountry to find Deer Haven, our campsite for the night.

This Barn Swallow landed on this sign at the trailhead to make sure we were aware of what we were heading into.

The high on July 4th in the Badlands was 106 degrees F. There's no shade, no water, and it's hard walking through washouts and tall prairie grass so we wanted a picture before we turned into dripping horrible messes.

Rick leads the way into the backcountry of the badlands - there's no marked trail, he navigated via landmark and topographical map.

Deer Haven! We camped just above the tree line. NOT an easy climb!

Ricky surveys the Badlands below us

Our tent site in Deer Haven

Ricky on the morning of July 5. We survived our night in the Badlands! The temperature plummeted overnight and the rest of the week was beautiful and in the mid-70s.

Big Horn Sheep!

Lark Bunting

After leaving the Badlands we drove down through Custer State park and into Wind Caves National Park. We spent the night of the 5th in Hot Springs at a little hotel, but camped the rest of the week. We also took a drive up Needles Highway and spent a night in the bizarre town of Deadwood SD - burial place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. But Deadwood and all it's casino/ice cream parlors wasn't really our style, so we headed back to Wind Cave for the last couple days.

This enormous Lubber Grasshopper was on the plains along the Centennial trail in Wind Caves National Park. The Centennial trail was meant to have markers, but the buffalo pushed them all over, so we just wandered around until a freak storm sent us scurrying 2 1/2 miles back to the car.