Travel from Spearfish 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: