Start Location: Medora, ND
Ending Location: Wall, SD
Miles Today: 360
Trip Miles: 1738
States Visited: 5
Provinces Visited: 0
Low Temp: 50.2° F
High Temp: 85.4° F
Min Elevation: 2286'
Max Elevation: 3972'
Route Map:
National Parks 2010 - Day05
Today was a great motorcycle day. We left Medora under clear
skies and bright sunshine. It was a little cool at 50 degrees but
by 9:15 it was already warmer than it got all day yesterday. By
10:00 it was in the 60s and by the afternoon it was in the mid to high
70s. We took Route 85 south for about 200 miles all the way to
Belle Fourche, SD - a popular destination during the Sturgis Bike Rally
every year. There was little to no traffic and the road, for the
most part, was dead straight. We would come up over a slight rise
and you could see the road stretching out in a straight line all the
way to the horizon. The lyrics of the Woodie Guthrie song - This
Land is Your Land - kept running through my head, especially the part
that goes:
As I was walking a ribbon of highway I saw above me an endless skyway I saw below me a golden valley This land was made for you and me
Once
we got to Spearfish, we hopped onto I-90 for a few miles to Rapid City
where we got off and picked up Route 44 that took us to the east
entrance of Badlands National Park. Once inside the park, we
stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up a map and kind of figure out
what we wanted to do. We also watched a 15 to 20 minute film
about the park and the origins of the Badlands. It was very
informative and, unlike the film at Theodore Roosevelt Park, well worth
the time.
The park itself was amazing with stark contrasts
between miles of prarie and grasslands and incredible stone pinnacles
and plateaus topped by grasslands. The park began to be formed 38
million years ago by a combination of volcanic activity and a buildup
of mud and silt that turned to rock. Then, only about a half
million years ago, erosion began to sculpt the stone into its present
form. This erosion still goes on today at a rate of about an inch
a year. It's quite possible that in another hundred thousand
years the Badlands will no longer exist. The ride through the
park is about 32 miles with plenty of viewpoints and pullouts along the
way. There is another more primitive section where much of the
bison and other wildlife tend to hangout, but it can only be reached by
gravel roads and I wasn't up to fighting an 850 pound motorcycle
through that. This park was definitely worth the trip.
After
leaving the park, we had an 8 mile drive to Wall, SD. In that 8
miles, which was on somewhat of a backroad, we estimated there were 2
dozen Wall Drug signs. For those not familiar with Wall Drug, it
started in 1931 and is the main (only) attraction in Wall and a huge
tourist trap. If you are traveling through South Dakota you see
Wall Drug signs for literally hundreds of miles. It must be the
most advertised location along I-90. For those not familiar with
Wall Drug, there's a brief and interesting history here.
Tomorrow it's off to the Black Hills to visit Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument.
