We had so much fun at Custer State Park, that I briefly considered canceling our second day at the Badlands and going back to Custer. One reason is that it was "opening day" at Custer and there was going to be a lot of special activities going on there. I also really want to take the Spires Trail that we missed out on the day before. But I decided against it, for what may seem like the silliest reason possible. When we were at Badlands, we didn't go to the Visitor Center and pick out a magnet. That would mean that this visit didn't count and next time we came to South Dakota we would have to go to Badlands again. Given that my plan is to stay in the Black Hills next time, that would make going to the Badlands much more difficult. So we stuck with the original plan, and loaded up the van for a trip to the Badlands.
Our first stop was a gas station just outside of the Badlands, the Badlands Trading Post. We had stopped at this gas station and gift shop on the way in and Matthew decided he wanted a cool poster of a wolf. Next we stopped at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. The badlands has two visitor centers, one in the south called White River and is much smaller. Also, it doesn't open until Memorial Day. The Ben Reifel is the larger one and open nearly year round. It had a large exhibit showcasing the history of the badlands. It explained the current belief on how the badlands are formed, showed the changing landscape of the area, and had many animal exhibits of current and past residents of the badlands. Julia and Joanna went through everything and earned their junior ranger badges. We picked up our magnet so that this could be counted as our official visit.
Once that was complete, we went back the large parking lot and loaded up for our longest hike of the vacation. Being a Saturday, there were significantly more people than the last time we were here. But proper planning always helps. By far, the most popular trails are the Notch, Window, & Door trails. On the other side of the road, there is the much longer Castle & Medicine Trail. These two trails are a 10 mile round trip hike through grasslands and badlands. While the ones we took are hiking up and into the badlands, today's trails are more appropriately called hiking next to the badlands. This means there were still many opportunities to climb up and down rock formations, but the trail itself was gentler and more suited for distance rather than spectacle.
My quite unrealistic goal was to make it to the Saddle Pass. At a quick guess, I would say this is approximately three miles from the trailhead. The Saddle Pass is the only trail marked "Strenuous", and I was curious to see what gave it that designation. Unfortunately, that is still a mystery for another time. Julia and Joanna did much better hiking this time than at previous vacations. Julia even stayed with her older counterparts for long stretches of the hike. We started down the Castle Trail with 4 kids quickly outpacing us while Joanna stayed behind with us.
After about 1 1/2 miles, you hit a road where the Castle & Medicine trail split to form a loop. If I had known about this, we would have started the trail here so that we could take the full loop. There really isn't a parking lot as much as a pull-off for maybe 5 or so cars to park at. It was here that we ate lunch on a badlands formation and continued on the Castle trail.
Julia had slowed down now, so the 3 kids took off leaving the 4 of us in the dust. We gave them a time that we needed to turn around. It was a pleasant walk down the trail with Julia & Joanna chatting away. Eventually, we made it to a large rock formation that I climbed for proof of how far we came. Once back at the car, Rebekah announced that her pedometer read five miles for our hike. That makes this the longest trail that Joanna has ever taken.
One of the most popular things to do at the Badlands is take the Badlands Loop road (240). This road takes you through the heart of the badlands with many pull-offs for gorgeous views. It is much slower than going up to the freeway, but we took it anyway and weren't disappointed. Every mile of so there is another unique and breathtaking view. We didn't stop at any of them, but it was well worth the slower car ride to take in God's handiwork. As we exited the park, we passed a herd of buffalo next to the road. They weren't blocking it, but once again they got almost close enough to touch.
We drove back to Rapid City and stopped at our traditional local ice cream shop. Rapid City's claim to fame is Armadillos Ice Cream Shoppe. It was here that we made a realization. South Dakota is all about the soft serve. Armadillos is a soft serve only. It was here that I remembered back to Wall Drug and our attempt to get ice cream soda's there. I ordered a hard ice cream, but got soft serve instead (that may have been a language problem). Back to Armadillo's, instead of cool flavors, they specialize in Sundaes. Rebekah got the Dirt Cup, Matthew got the Sweet Meg, & Elisabeth got the Black Forest. That was plenty of ice cream, so the rest of us shared.
Nothing like ice cream right before dinner, but sometimes that is how the schedule falls. We went back to the house for our first homemade dinner since Wednesday. Then we watched Boss Baby until the girls went to bed, and then switched to Pinocchio, much to the chagrin of Rebekah and Elisabeth. Who claimed much trauma due to this darker take on an already dark movie.
On Sunday, we went back to Emmanuel Baptist Church. Once again I played that piano for the morning service and Pastor Ken Schultz preached a good message. Afterward we had a fellowship. The girls had spent a good part of Saturday night & Sunday morning putting together a taco casserole & banana pudding. While perhaps not ideal, it was helpful that this church didn't have Sunday School. That extra time was needed to finish the food that we brought to the fellowship. Everybody was very friendly, and the food was just fine. Nothing compares to southern cooking, but they made plenty and nobody went away hungry. Since we couldn't take the food home with us, we gave away our leftovers to anybody who would take it. During the fellowship, one of the ladies recruited our kids to help in the nursing home. So after we got home, the three teenagers went to Avantra North to minister to the elderly. The rest of us took a nap. We returned for the evening service and after a long time talking to the members, we took the Pastor and his wife out to eat. Once again we went to Millstone. Here I realized my mistake. During my research on places to eat, I found Dakotah Steakhouse. It looked really good, and when we went out to eat on Thursday, I was going to recommend it. But instead we took Mrs. Schultz's advice and went to Millstone instead. It was a mistake. The food was adequate, but nothing like a good homestyle restaurant in Alabama. Of course, when taking the Pastor and wife out, they wanted Millstone. This time I tried a breakfast bowl, and once again left disappointed. They tried, but flavor is a hard concept in the north. However, while the food may have been lacking, the service was great and given that we stayed until 10pm, most other places would have kicked us out long ago. We had a great time of fellowship with the Schultzs and stayed right up to closing time.
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