I had originally planned two days’ rest in Rapid City, South Dakota, but that was when I thought I would be spending last week riding across Wyoming. With rainy weather expected Monday and Tuesday, I decided to use Sunday to get a jump on the ride I had planned for Tuesday, and ride from Rapid City to Badlands National Park.
One reason to ride across the country from west to east is that the prevailing winds tend to come from the west. But tendencies are like averages, and they mask wide variations. Sunday the winds blew from the southeast all day and I was heading, yep, southeast. The winds probably stayed under 20 MPH in the morning, but by the time we reached the gate at Badlands National Park they blew at 20 to 25 MPH with 35 MPH gusts. It looked and sounded like this as I pulled into the park.
Occasionally the road or the wind would turn enough that the wind was coming from the rear quarter, but the energy it took to hold my line more than offset any forward push the wind gave me. The shoulder was wide and there was little traffic, so I plodded on.
I usually regard the mileage on my computer with passing interest, but on this ride I watched it longingly: 25 miles, almost a third of the way done!; 38 miles, halfway!; 50 miles, almost two thirds! I really missed having someone to trade pulls. Sometimes, the road ahead looked endless.
Pulling into the wind makes it hard to keep an eye on the countryside, but the terrain was varied and clearly a change from further west. In Wind Cave National Park on Friday I saw an interpretive sign claiming that the Black Hills are where east meets west. I still feel like I’m in the west, but it’s a different kind of west, and clearly on the verge of the midwest.
We are still in cattle country, and these were not the dairy cows of Idaho but beef cattle like those we saw driving across Wyoming.
The range land is different from Idaho and Wyoming, with grassland rather than scrub brush and generally softer contours on the landscape.
The people here seem more midwestern as well. We have felt welcome everywhere, but further west, there was a sense of “why would you want to be here”? In South Dakota, people are a little more open (though still with that undertone of reserve that is characteristic of many midwesterners, myself included) and happy to have us.
The Badlands were preceded by sandy soils that were clearly inappropriate for either farming or ranch land.
Once in the park, the erosive effects of the last 500,000 years have left distinctive geological features that reminded Toni and me of Bryce Canyon in Utah. They are a little less colorful than Bryce, yet still present a vivid contrast to the surrounding mixed grass prairie.
And yes, there were a few barns; this one stood out.
We are in the midst of Memorial Day weekend, so we had made reservations in Rapid City to be sure we had a place to stay over the weekend. After Sunday’s ride we therefore backtracked in the RV to Rapid City via the Interstate. Tuesday, we will drive back to Badlands (where we have reservations in the campground) and pick up the route from there.
The technical stuff:
77.8 miles
1,253 feet of climbing
Average speed 13.7 miles per hour
Weather: Bright sunshine, temperatures in the low 60s to start and mid 70s at the end, winds 20-25 MPH with gusts to 35 MPH and mostly headwinds or crosswinds.
You can see the entire route to date here.