Carol & Warner's Trip Around The USA: Black Hills of South Dakota to Rochester,Minnesota 6.10.2011

Friday, June 10, 2011

From The Black Hills of South Dakota to Rochester, Minnesota

We packed our rain soaked camping gear and be our trip eastward toward Minnesota. As we passed through the Black Hills, I took a few more pictures including Mount Rushmore.

We drove east on I-90 through farmlands of South Dakota. We detoured along Route 240, known as “The Badlands Loop”, and into the fabled Badlands of South Dakota, I was unprepared for what I found there. Words fail me as I try to describe them. It was landscape sculpted by wind, water, and geologic forces.

The area is approached across lush green prairie with little hint of colorful formations soon to come into view- rounded hills, sharp peaks; a severely weathered and eroded landscape decorated with reds, yellows, and golds. I understood why they were called “The Badlands”. Certainly early travelers found them to be formidable area to cross.

The images I have included below best give a sense of this remarkable place.

We left the Badlands behind and continued toward our destination of Rochester, MN.

At 11:00 am, we entered the Central Time Zone,

As we approached the Mississippi River, which was swollen with floodwaters, the landscape became for heavily wooded and the character of the agriculture changed. Farms began have large barns and silos and were closer together and seemed smaller. Corn replaced wheat and dairy operations were the norm.

We crossed the Mississippi at 12:52 and drove on crossing the Minnesota border at 3:22 pm with 200 miles to go before reaching Rochester. We traveled through a verdant landscape of prairie lands or gently rolling hills – no mountains.

The journey from South Dakota covered nearly 600 miles and took us approximately ten hours. Gas was the cheapest yet - $3.68 per gallon.