North and South Dakota

One very underrated state, and one state that no one cares much about. To be fair, we were not in North Dakota very long, but the amount of time that we were there, there was absolutely nothing. In South Dakota, though, we had a ton of fun. From Badlands National Park to Mount Rushmore and a hike to the highest point east of the Rockies, South Dakota did not disappoint.

North Dakota

The place where there is nothing. Honestly probably the worst state in the US (no offense if you live here). Since there is little to do here, we often debated flying into Fargo, eating a meal in the airport, and then flying back home (I’m not joking). What we ended up doing is driving all the way from Denver into the small town of Bowman where we ate at a place called Lucky Goose Grill and Bar. They had good pizza and a porch goose. Our photo was in front of the North Dakota state sign and that was it for this state!

South Dakota

A state that is lowkey underrated and is way better than its brother state North Dakota. After finishing taking our North Dakota state photo at about 8:30pm, we headed out for the rest of our drive, which was about 3 hours to the town of Wall, South Dakota. We stayed in a motel called Hansen Inn and Cabins, which was clean, met all of our needs, and provided walking access to the center of the town. On our first full day in South Dakota, we went to Badlands National Park. One of the things that I really liked about this National Park was that you could walk anywhere in the park and go off trail wherever you wanted. The scenery was really cool and it seemed as if you were on another planet. A few of the hikes that we enjoyed were the Door, Window, and Saddle Pass trails. All of these hikes were less than 2 miles but they each had unique experiences and I recommend doing them all. After we hiked, we went and had lunch at the Visitors Center (they have good huckleberry ice cream!) and drove back into the town of Wall. We then went souvenir shopping and explored the Wall Drug Store. It was giant and really did live up to all the hype, in my opinion. We had dinner that night at Salty Steer which had slow service because they just opened but the food was really good and I recommend going there. I got the steak and really enjoyed it and the brussels sprouts are really good, too. Then we drove back into the Badlands to enjoy the sunset and The Pinnacles Overlook. After sunset, we went to the Night Sky Program in the National Park but sadly the sky was cloudy and we could not see very many of the stars or planets. The next day we drove over to Mount Rushmore and did a hike (the Presidential Trail) that offered multiple views of Mount Rushmore. Afterwards, we had lunch at Cruizzers which had really good pizza and I highly recommend it. Also the town of Keystone was really cool and I would recommend staying in this town instead of the town of Custer where we stayed. After lunch we went and did an 8 mile hike called Black Elk Peak. On this hike we had awesome views and even got to go to the highest point in America east of the Rockies! After the hike, we had a quick dinner at Sage Creek Grille and then grabbed ice cream at a nearby place called Horatio’s Homemade Ice Cream before falling asleep at our Comfort Inn & Suites hotel. The next day, we flew out of Denver airport at night and that about sums up our Dakotas trip. I actually enjoyed this trip a lot more than I thought I would and there truly is a lot to do and see in Southwest South Dakota.

Awards

Best Eat: Salty Steer or Cruizzers

Favorite Activity: Saddle Pass Trail @ Badlands National Park

Worst Thing: North Dakota (lol)