Saturday, June 9, 2012

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.

3 comments:

  1. Hello we stayed in this very campground back in 1996 - June 4th !

    Dave - G6ZKC

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello, Me again looking at the diary we stayed in site 16 and paid $10 per night - no electric and temp over night was 13C 55F and very windy !!

    It's fun to look back, I follow your posts daily!.

    Dave - G6ZKC

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just found your Blog, your home is awesome! I love it! 47,000 lbs? Holy Wa!(as we Norderners say)

    You Folks are running around in my favorite stomping grounds...I used to go to Sturgis every year for more than a decade.

    I'm surprised you didn't get up to Spearfish Canyon? Or Custer State Park? Both wonderful places to explore!

    My Dad helped build the Dam at Pierre so we've spent some time there too, some of the roads are a bit lacking around the area but it's worth the trip if the Grasshopper plagues aren't swarming!

    Full Time Road Warriors

    ReplyDelete

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