“World-wide delivery in 30 minutes or less, or your next one is free.”
The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site features a visitor center, Delta-01 missile control center, and Delta-09 missile silo of the Minuteman II nuclear missile system.
Visitor Center:
We did a ranger-guided tour of the Delta-01 Launch Control Center (which requires an advance reservation):
A small elevator down:
A big door:
A video of a simulated missile launch:
Delta-09 Missile Silo:
We visited Badlands National Park several times while staying nearby. Badlands was good lands; we enjoyed exploring the park.
Here’s a map; most of the scenic stuff is in the North Unit:
An interactive map:
Relief map in the visitor center:
Exhibits in visitor center:
Pressed penny:
Badlands:
The Stronghold Unit visitor center:
Back to the North Unit:
RVers camping on the top of the wall:
Big horn sheep:
Cows on the road:
We enjoyed the badlands.
We stayed at Badlands / White River KOA Holiday in Interior, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Yet another KOA, quite nice, right outside Badlands National Park.
Dates:
Weather:
Noise:
Site:
Utilities:
Internet (in usage priority order):
Amenities:
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Cook Shack and close to Badlands NP
What’s not to love about a park that has food service onsite? I definitely appreciate it, especially when other options are few and far between. We had a deluxe patio site, which was located at the end of a row. The site had a few trees for afternoon shade, which was nice. The site was not huge, however, and we had to park our tow vehicle perpendicular to the coach; I still worried about our bumper getting clipped as the roads are pretty narrow and there are some tight turns. It was pretty quiet, and the proximity to Badlands NP can’t be beat. We camped at Badlands / White River KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Stock up on bottled water before arriving. The local water is very alkaline and hard, which made it pretty much undrinkable (unless you like that sort of thing; our three-stage filter and water softener still didn’t improve it). The mosquitos are voracious, so ensure you have repellant if you want to sit outside. Plan ahead and get tickets for the control room tour at Minuteman Missile NHS. You get a pretty personalized tour and a good feel for what it was like to serve there.
The campground map:
We stayed in site #20, which we had site-locked as what looked like the best site when we booked. Once here, and after walking around the campground, I can confirm; it is definitely the best site. There are some very long sites towards the back of the campground, but they are buddy sites (i.e. living areas facing the neighbor), which we hate.
An interactive map:
Our site, on the end of the row:
Using the Starlink on the flagpole:
Our patio:
The patio came with a wacky fire pit thingy, and a charcoal grill, though we didn’t use either, but did use our Blackstone griddle:
The RV park is near Badlands National Park, so we were able to add that sticker to our coach, starting another row (I’ll need a stepstool to add them soon!):
Sunset:
We normally drink water from the dispenser on our fridge. But not here — even the five filters the water passes through weren’t able to make the water here taste good; our test strips indicate that the water has very high pH and alkalinity, which the filters can’t help with:
We did our full suite of test strips; everything else was fine:
Early in our stay the air was rather unhealthy due to wildfire smoke from Canada:
Smoke map (a blue dot near the middle is our location):
We also had lightning and heavy rain nearby (blue location dot off to the right; the weather heading that way):
We got a bunch of packages delivered here; I used my folding cart to collect the heaviest of them:
The office and camp store:
A nice feature of this campground is the cook shack (or “kookhouse”) that was open for breakfast and dinner every day:
Menus:
The next door pavilion for eating and activities:
A tasty breakfast:
A dinner:
There were a lot of flies buzzing around, so I took the dinner back to our site and ate on the patio:
A strange historic artifact; kids, ask your parents:
Swmming pool:
Dog park:
Dog shower, with mini golf in the background:
Path:
Lots of tent sites:
Cabins:
Other sites:
Entrance sign:
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 127 miles from Spearfish, South Dakota to Badlands, South Dakota.
We drove our coach 127 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from Spearfish, South Dakota to Badlands, South Dakota.
Here’s the map route, heading southeast:
An interactive map:
Leaving our site, in a cloud of dust from the gravel:
Leaving the campground:
Heading east on I-90:
Rapid City exit:
A fuel stop at Flying J; we don’t get a discount there, and have to go in to pay, but it was more convenient to our route:
Almost 82 gallons of diesel, a bit over half a tank:
We parked our coach, with the generator running so the ACs would keep it cool, and went in to have lunch:
At the Country Market restaurant in the Flying J:
Menu:
Breakfast for lunch; a little underdone:, but tasty enough:
We had a choice between continuing on I-90, or going on SD-44; we opted for the highway, since we generally prefer them to freeways:
A sea of sad sunflowers, done blooming and going to seed:
Entering Badlands National Park:
Roadworks; driving on gravel isn’t particularly enjoyable in our coach, so we kinda regretted our choice to come this way (we knew that there was roadworks, but didn’t expect a lack of paving):
A prairie dog town (one visible by the fence):
An old cabin and pond:
Interior, SD, population 94:
White River:
Our destination:
Guided to our site:
On his recommendation, we untoaded (unhooked our truck from our coach) before reaching the site, then followed separately:
Parking in our site:
The lift motor housing broke on the vent in our rear bathroom, so I replaced it.
Here’s the vent, with the decorative wooden cover open:
The broken housing:
I ordered a new motor from Amazon (cheaper than from the Tiffin parts store, though availability may be spotty):
Removing the old motor:
Above that, the lift mechanism, which had become detached (causing the breakage):
The motor just plugs in to a couple of connectors:
The new motor and housing in place, after re-mounting the lift mechanism:
All better:
An easy fix, and as a bonus, it’s quieter now when opening and closing the vent.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is one of the most famous monuments in the country, though with some problematic history.
George Washington, First President of the United States:
Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States:
Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States:
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States:
Exhibit Hall:
Profile View:
A massive monument in South Dakota is the Crazy Horse Memorial, a mountain-sized monument to an American Indian war leader named Crazy Horse. The monument was started by one guy in 1948, and is far from completion. Official website.
The Welcome Center:
A model of the planned finished product:
Compare the model to the current state:
Progress pictures:
The artists studio:
Progress pictures:
Model:
Another look at the current state:
We did a ranger-guided tour of Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota.
Jenn getting her park passport stamp:
A map of the explored portions of the cave; it’s massive:
Exhibits:
Gift store:
Elevators to head down into the cave:
The jewels of Jewel Cave:
Lots of stairs:
Cave bacon:
Lots and lots of stairs:
Everyone needed to walk through a White Nose Syndrome mat when exiting:
While staying in Spearfish, South Dakota, and later while staying in Hot Springs, South Dakota, we visited several of the nearby scenic byways and towns in the Black Hills area, including Spearfish, Belle Fourche, Deadwood, Custer, and Hot Springs, amongst others. This post is a collection of some interesting pictures from this region. (Several big attractions of this area, including Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore National Monument, Custer State Park, Iron Mountain Road, and Wind Cave National Park, will be covered in separate posts.)
We really enjoyed the Black Hills area, and could see ourselves buying property here one day. Though we still have lots more of the country to see, so you never know!
Here’s an interactive map of the Black Hills area; part of it is in Wyoming, but the majority is in South Dakota:
Roughlock Falls Road, south of Spearfish:
Spearfish Canyon Highway:
Some mountain goats licking something on the road:
Another day, still there:
Custer:
Lunch at the Purple Pie Place:
Keystone:
Deadwood:
Hill City:
Dinner in Lead:
Dinner in Rapid City:
Belle Fourche:
Belle Fourche claims to be the geographic center of the US, when including Alaska and Hawaii:
Hot Springs:
