I can’t believe it’s been over a week since we returned from the #FlintsTakeSD trip! Life has continued on in full force and we’re in the homestretch before football season starts and then school. As life continues on, I’m struggling to collect my thoughts about our vacation to South Dakota and so I decided to start with our recommendations for where to visit! Due to there being so many this will be broken into several different posts! So, without further ado….thing things that we think make South Dakota a Family’s Playground!
The Corn Palace at Mitchell, South Dakota
For us, Mitchell was the half way point in our drive from home to the Mount Rushmore KOA where we were staying for the duration of our stay. We also spent the first night in Mitchell at another KOA Kampground. While corn is nothing new to our family, we did enjoy visiting the Corn Palace. The number one reason it’s great for families is that it’s FREE!!! When you’re paying for admission for 4 people, free is good!! We didn’t take the time to read through the history of the corn palace (after 4 hours in the truck, no one had
that kind of attention), but we enjoyed seeing the Palace, all the merchandise centered around corn in the gift shop, and M enjoyed climbing into the cab of the combine and on to the tractor (even though we have lots of exposure and accessibility to those things at home)! Typical boy, right? It was a great thing to do to burn some energy after the car ride. Near the Corn Palace are a number of kitschy touristy shops, but since we were there on a Sunday night, those were all closed! We still enjoyed roaming around and window shopping!
Badlands National Park Scenic Loop
From Mitchell (we met up with my Mom & Step-Dad there), we headed to Wall where we parked our camper & truck and all climbed into one vehicle. Then, we headed south out of Wall onto the Badlands Scenic Loop! There is a per car fee (I think it was $10-$15) but for 6 of us, that’s pretty dang reasonable! And, it was totally worth it! Not only are the views amazing, but there are also places to get out of the car and climb on some formations, which the boys especially liked. Finally, you might get lucky and see some wildlife! R spotted Big Horn Sheep that we had to do 2 turn-arounds to get pictures of…but I think you’d probably agree that it was worth it! We ended our drive at the Badland’s Trading Post
convenience store. It looks like an oversized gas station and essentially that is what it is, but they also have a great variety of trinkets and souvenirs, not to mention delicious soft serve ice cream that 3 of us enjoyed! It was a great way to end our Badlands’ drive before heading back to Wall.
Note: At this point, we visited Wall Drug. To be honest, we were all incredibly disappointed! We all felt it was a large tourist trap and over crowded. We all had wished we had skipped it! Even the FREE Ice water wasn’t even cold! 🙁
Bear Country USA
I think it would be safe to say that all 6 of us enjoyed Bear Country! We encountered a line of vehicles when we arrived and they did warn us that it was the busiest week of their season! That being said, for the most part it kept moving. At Bear Country, you stay in your vehicle and drive though the animal exhibits & their habitats. We saw a large variety of animals including Buffalo, Bears, Reindeer (one who decided to come right up to the truck and M promptly named “Jeff” and that name stuck with the family for the rest of the trip!), Prong-Horns, cats (like leopards or cheetahs), & Big Horn Sheep! Once the main drive is over, you are to park and walk through Babyland! Here you have the chance to see several baby animals including Skunks, Porcupines, fox, wolfs, and of course Bear Cubs. The cubs were everyone’s favorites as they played and frolicked and acted like the young babes they are! A couple thins to not: admission is per person (even though you’re all in one car) and there are not any bathroom stops along the way (and it takes 45 minutes – 1.5 hours to complete). I was the only one that had an issue with the bathroom thing! (Too much dang iced coffee)!
Well, that wraps up the first installment of South Dakota: A Family’s Playground! Stay tuned for Part 2!
Such a great post! I am envious of actually getting to go into the Corn Palace. I drove by it but was on a mission trip and they did not stop. Wahhh! You know that about killed me. 🙂 But it may be a trip one of these days, who knows? Your trip looks like it was a lot of fun and you shared some great tips and places to visit. Thanks for sharing with us!
When I was little we just drove by the Corn Palace as well, so I was happy to step-inside this time! Thanks for checking the post out!
I see the sign for the corn palace all the time, but have not stopped yet. We did do the bears though.
The bears are so much fun! You can’t really go wrong with animals though, can you?