Trouble in the heartland ...

We are at the Cedar Pass campground in Badlands National Park (map). We were here four years ago, on a much more rushed schedule. This time, we arrived by 2pm, took the scooters out, and explored the park. We had a nice drive from Rapid City on SD-44, through the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, all the way to Interior, where we turned north into the park. Four years ago we had taken 44 south and east from here, on our way to Austin.

The campground is operated by a concessionaire, Forever Resorts, who also operate the lodge. Sites with and without electric service are intermixed, currently $16 without and $28 with electricity; we opted for without in this mostly pleasant weather. It was a bit warm at the end of the day, though, so we had our dinner sitting outside, with the cats. Excitement ensued when a snake slithered through our campsite -- I think Angel wanted snake for dinner. We intervened before any altercation began, which is as much "trouble in the heartland" as we've had here, Bruce Springsteen notwithstanding.

Now that we've had a relaxing stay here, and eaten at the Cedar Pass lodge (we had breakfast there -- it's little more than a diner, and was unappealing for dinner), we can say we're done with the Badlands. Today we will continue north out of the park, doing the last section of the park road that we missed last time. We will most likely continue due north past I-90 to intersect with US-14, which will take us across the state and over the Missouri River in Pierre.