We got up and left the cabin to take photos of the Badlands at around 5:30 AM. It was gorgeous out. Good light for photos, perfect temperature, and not crowded at all. But, who other than us would get up at that hour? Only a couple of people. When we lost the optimal early morning light, we headed back to the cabin to get ready for the day.
We took the Badlands Loop to see all that we could. It is so quiet and eerie, very surreal. Some folks backpack in the park, which I just can’t imagine. It seems so spooky, even in the daylight! But Hubby thinks it looks like fun. We enjoyed this natural wonder so much that we decided to detour and take in the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore. I didn’t know South Dakota was so beautiful. Yesterday, as we rounded a bend, the most beautiful scene was right in front of us. We went from prairie to big lush, rolling hills that were on either side of the Missouri River. Now, being from Kansas City, I had never thought of the Missouri River as anything other than brown and yucky. What we saw in South Dakota was wide and blue. I couldn’t believe it was the same river! The lush hills looked like they would be soft and cushy to lie down on and take a nap.
The Black Hills did not disappoint either. I thought they would be similar to the Flint Hills, which I think are very pretty. They make the drive to Heaven, I mean Manhattan so pleasant. But, the Black Hills are more like mountains. They reminded us of the Smoky Mountains, without the kudzu. It rained on us, so we did not get to take any photos, but were glad we made the side trip. Mt. Rushmore was nice to see, but very touristy. We took a look at the old guys and then headed back on route to Montana. We had completely befuddled BB, our GPS. She had us taking a different highway from what our Streets and Trips software had shown and we were feeling adventurous, so we went with BB. Good plan! We saw old, old little towns, mostly mining towns. We saw some of the most amazing countryside. Western South Dakota and the little bit of Wyoming we saw had us slack-jawed. We didn’t even mind the 9 miles we had to drive on unpaved road! When they do highway improvements up here, apparently they just dig up the whole dang thing and start again!
Eastern Montana was very different from where we had been. The hills are filled with scrubby desert-y growth. The landscape was less inspiring, but beautiful in its own way.
As it was getting dark, we ran into some rain. Not bad, but slowed us down a little. We saw a gorgeous rainbow. I had never seen a rainbow where you could see through it. We saw houses tinted red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. It was like you were looking at the houses through a filter. Quite cool. We arrived at Belgrade, MT about 11:00 PM. We thought we could see mountains in the distance as we approached Bozeman and can’t wait to see it in the daylight.
Today’s drive should be should be shorter but just as pretty as what we saw early yesterday. It will be nice to get to the cabin, unload the car, and stay awhile.
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