Napa to Chicago Part IV (South Dakota)

If you haven't heard already, the weather in Chicago and in many other parts of the US has been whack! We're used to freezing cold temperatures and lots of snow (depending on the year), but it's been snowing almost nonstop since New Years Eve. It stops tonight, and then the temperatures are dropping to 15 below zero (and even lower in the suburbs). Ouch! I've never experienced weather like this, so I plan to stay indoors unless I have to take my friend's dog outside. We've been watching him for a week while she's in Mexico. She's supposed to get back tonight, but flights are getting delayed and canceled left and right. 

Charlie is quite the looker, isn't he? He is absolutely head-over-heels in love with my husband. (I also talked about Charlie here.) 

Back to the January insanity, we have a beautiful deck on the 7th floor of our building. In the summer, residents are out here grilling, drinking, and sunbathing. In the winter, you can look at it from the gym and take pictures of the snow accumulating on it. 

It's beautiful, isn't it?

Now I'll focus on the main topic of this post: the South Dakota recap. If I can't be in warmer weather, I can vicariously live through myself in my memories. 
Here are earlier road trip recaps:
Part I
Part II
Part III

We entered South Dakota in the late morning of our third day. Soon, we were within sight of the Black Hills that is home to two tourist attractions: the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore. I was excited to see them, even though I heard bad reviews from people who had been there before us. 

Custer is the oldest town in the Black Hills and located near the attractions. As soon as we saw the sign, we knew we were close. 

We saw Crazy Horse just as we left Custer. We could have driven right by it if we didn't know to look for the shape of a man's head in the side of a mountain. 

The mountain carving began in 1948 and, if it's ever completed, will resemble a famous Native American warrior riding a horse that will be much taller than Mt. Rushmore. Even mid-completion, it looks awesome.  

If you look closely at the photo below, you can make out the sketching on the rock where the horse's head is supposed to be. 

We paid $20 to park at the museum and get a better look of the enormous structure, but we both agreed that we would have gotten just as much out of pulling over to the side of the road and taking pictures for free. For our $20, we were able to go into a stuffy museum with bathrooms, a video to watch if we wanted to go into the theater, and a giant glass window where we could get a closer picture of Crazy Horse (posted above). We also could have taken a bus to the bottom of the mountain for an additional fee, but we already felt like we paid enough. I feel a little bad that we didn't take the time to learn about Crazy Horse and the memorial, but we had a lot of driving to do. 

We got back in the car and navigated the hills to find Mt. Rushmore. Luckily, it wasn't hard with the signs. 

After our Crazy Horse experience and hearing over and over again that Mt. Rushmore was "overrated', we didn't feel like paying to park the car and dodge other tourists to get a few photos. We probably could have parked on the side of the road further down the hill and walked up too (although it could have been dangerous with all of the cars driving quickly around the bends), but we decided against it. Instead of leaving our car, I snapped a bunch of photos from the passenger's seat while Al drove by and turned back around a few times. We got some decent photos, too. 

Mt. Rushmore was pretty neat to see in the flesh, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it unless I was doing a road trip. I always imagined it being gigantic, but it's much smaller than Al and I expected. I'm glad to say that I have seen it, though. 

On our way out of the park, we went through some crazy Western touristy town that was packed with tacky-looking restaurants. It  looked like a blast, but we had to keep going. 

We ate lunch at McDonald's somewhere near Rapid City (hey, if you get your stuff grilled, ask for light sauce, skip the fountain drink, and split the side of fries with your road trip companion, McDonald's isn't so terrible for ya) and then drove east to the Badlands. We were stoked to see this place. 

The Badlands is a national park in rural South Dakota. I only heard of it last year when a family member mentioned it to me. It's surrounded by flat grassy farmland, which explains why we were so shocked when we set our eyes on these rock formations. 

In parts of the park, I felt like we were visiting a mini Grand Canyon. 

(I didn't pack enough daytime comfy clothes, in case you noticed that I've worn this outfit before.)

We took our time driving around the Badlands Loop, which is just a small paved part of the park that allows you to see the sights in just a few hours. We got out of the car at almost every stopping point and snapped pictures. 

These rock formations are unbelievable. I'm not a geology buff by any means, but it would be fascinating to learn in depth about how these came to be. 

With the panorama feature on my iPhone camera, I was able to get some pretty sweet pictures. 

After the Badlands, we made our last stop for the night in Oacoma, South Dakota. 

Oacoma sits right on the Missouri River. After we checked into our hotel, we drove over the bridge into Chamberlain to grab a bite to eat. 

We didn't see anywhere we wanted to eat in Chamberlain, so we crossed back over the bridge and went to Al's Oasis next to our hotel. It has the same name as Al, and it looked inviting (and tacky). 

It was a cute little place to shop for touristy things and pick up some groceries, but the restaurant wasn't very exciting. It was one of those eateries where, by the look of it, you only want to order "safe" things on the menu. I think I got a turkey sandwich or something. We were in and out of there, and then we went to bed. 

We didn't have far to go the next day before we got to the South Dakota/Minnesota border. We started by crossing over the river for our last time.

We passed some random but interesting statue on the highway. I have no clue what its purpose is. 

Our last stop of South Dakota was also a pleasant surprise. I was looking for attractions in Sioux Falls while browsing on my phone, and I learned that there's a waterfall that goes through the center of town. It had great reviews on tripadvisor.com, so we checked it out. 

We were pleasantly surprised! After paying to see all of these natural attractions, it was nice to see a big rocky waterfall going through the middle of a green park in a Midwestern town for free. 

The reviews warned us that it might smell bad, and they were right. From what I remember, there's a meat plant near the park that makes the air reek if the wind is blowing a certain way. Although it smelled like a rancid dead animal, Falls Park was very enjoyable. 

We just breathed through our mouths. 

That's all for South Dakota. I have one more recap to do!