Badlands, SD

We had a wonderful two days in the Badlands National Park, SD. The grasses and other plants are so green and otherwise colorful right now that this was a real treat!

We did one hike of about six miles our first day there. Wonderful. 

 We also drove the Badlands Loop Road the next day which provided additional lovely views. 

Last night we had a pretty good thunderstorm at our campground, but nothing like those to the south of us.  This morning we reviewed the overall weather pattern and forecast for the Black Hills, which was to be our next destination. 

This trip has been full of changes. The reunion part was great and went off without a hitch. Wonderful campground - Oahe Downstream Recreation Area. We got cancelled at the Badlands Park campground due to asphalting. No problem. Stayed at a really nice KOA just outside the park. 

We had a reservation at the KOA at Mt Rushmore but we cancelled this morning.  It was to have been our next stop. This weather pattern persists and the forecast for the Black Hills is bad - hail, super cells, damaging winds for the next several days. Foolish to deliberately drive into that. 

So we headed east today on I90, going to Sioux Falls. The forecast is for thunder showers but not super cells. We are staying in Sioux Falls tonight and then will evaluate our options. We got cancelled at Blue Mounds State Park in MN due to flooding. That was to have been our last stop.