After the obligatory stop at the corny Corn Palace, we were on Interstate 90 crossing South Dakota. There’s a really nice rest area and free interpretive center in Chamberlain, SD overlooking the Missouri River that we have stopped at on a number of trips. This time there was something new. A beautiful 50 foot statue of a native woman titled Dignity.
Isn’t she lovely?
Next was our traditional stop for one of my favorite grasslands vistas – the Belvidere Westbound Rest Area.
Cue the obligatory Steve Zissou homage.
This is a nice stop because on a clear day, you can see the Badlands in the distance.
I love the Badlands. Badlands National Park is one of those surreal places – you’re traveling along and suddenly you’re in these otherworldly rock formations interspersed with prairie. It’s an eerie place. I can only imagine what it must have seemed like to travelers on horseback or covered wagon.
“What the hell is this place?”