Next was the world-famous Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, but I thought that was a waste of time. Yes, interesting to create this whole art-y facade using corn and corn stalk, but it's just a civic center. You don't know until you go, though.
On down the road, it was easy to get pulled in by the Badlands Petrified Gardens, which gave me my first real chance to see and feel petrified wood. And there was a fair bit of it there. However, the stop was soured by the Biblical Timeline that loomed over the scientific reality of the specimens while trying to sell a fairy tale about creation.
Quite a ways along, there was a scenic view pull-off for travelers to take in a portion of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, which is hard to really capture with a two-dimensional photo. Here's an attempt, nonetheless:
There is a terrific loop road through the Badlands National Park, and it gives you a chance to head into an absolutely unreal landscape. It looks and feels like it could be another planet. Since the day offered picture-perfect weather, I tried to snap some perfect pictures. They are decent, but really: you had to be there.
With the mostly good stops on the long drive across South Dakota from Sioux Falls to Rapid City, there was at least one other pointless stop: the world-famous tourist trap known as Wall Drug. Like our nearby South of the Border, billboards begin hundreds of miles away and appear to taunt and tempt and amuse you every few miles. After hearing of it and seeing bumper stickers advertising it on various cars on the east and west coast, it seemed necessary to check it out firsthand.
What a waste of very good time. But at least now I know.
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