Base Camp
Our home for the week was Big Sioux Recreation Area, about 20 minutes from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This campground had some beautiful mature trees that we loved for scenery, but made it difficult for our Starlink internet to connect. We ended up relying heavily on our Verizon internet, but luckily it held strong for Zac’s work calls. Our individual site backed up to a paved trail along the Big Sioux River which was perfect for an afternoon walk on our first day here. Overall this was a very nice campground and well maintained, my favorite part had to be the tree cover and distance between us and our neighbors.
Monday, August 19th
My cold was still lingering (going on 3 weeks at this point) and Zac’s was just finishing up so we stayed in for the evening and just watched some movies. I feel fortunate that we are able to chill on nights like this when we really needed some R&R.
Tuesday, August 20th
Of course it rained on the day we were starting to feel better and were ready to do some exploring in the area! So we took advantage of being forced to stay inside by going to the laundromat and getting some pesky chores done. Another uneventful night to report in South Dakota!
Wednesday, August 21st
We were finally able to do something after work this evening, so we headed to Devils Gulch. This is a portion of Split Rock Creek that cuts a gorge through tall, red canyons and legend has it that Jesse James jumped this canyon with his horse to escape his chasers. We had a short walk here after waiting in the car for a screaming child to leave the area. The rock formations were pretty cool but every time I crossed the bridge I worried that this would be the time it fell. But I survived and we headed back to the campground.
Thursday, August 22nd
This evening we drove across the state border into Minnesota and visited Pipestone National Monument. There was a nice loop trail through red rock formations but unfortunately the loop was closed halfway due to a bridge collapse. The walk we were able to do was pretty though and offered some views that surprised us in the middle of the farm fields of Minnesota. While there we learned that indigenous people have used the red stone at this site to make pipes used in prayer and ceremony. After this shortened walk, we headed back for another early night in the RV.
Friday, August 23rd
After work on Friday we decided to get some drinks and dinner in the city of Sioux Falls. At the first bar, Zac tried an amazing key lime daiquiri and I had a tasty grapefruit Tom Collins. We then decided on Thai food for dinner before heading to the waterfalls downtown. I had stopped at these falls with my family on the trip we did in 2015 to Mount Rushmore and they looked completely different than what I had remembered. There must have been a lot of development in the past 10 years (honestly, I’d hope so!), and there were some nice overlooks and walking paths to view the falls. What a cool way for a city to highlight a natural feature like this!
Saturday, August 24th
We packed up the travel trailer and set off from our base camp to head into Iowa. Once in Iowa, we stopped in the town of Okoboji to have some ice cream by the water. This town reminded me a lot of towns in northern Michigan, where people gravitate towards a lake and spend all day on their boats. This lake was huge and swarming with boats of all sizes- there were even a few party barges with blaring music. It looked like a blast and if we didn’t have the travel trailer with us and Scout camped out in it, we would have tried to rent a boat to spend the day here. Since it was a hot day and we didn’t want to keep Scout in the RV for too long, we only visited for about an hour and then got back on the road.
Our next stop was one of those weird sights that you only see on road trips- like visiting the world’s largest ball of yarn. We pulled into West Bend, Iowa to visit The Shrine of the Grotto of Redemption. This is the largest man-made Grotto in the world and is home to one of the largest collection of precious stones and gems found anywhere in one location. After this visit we drove a couple more hours and parked for the night at Walmart.
Sunday. August 25th
Did our new Sunday routine of early morning grocery shopping and immediately loaded them into our fridge. We then hit the road and headed to our new base camp for the week, Elk Rock State Park. Arrival and set up went smoothly so we decided to venture into the nearby town of Pella. This reminded us so much of Holland, Michigan - it even had signs up about their annual tulip time festival. We walked around the Central Park area and ate some ice cream then called it a night.
This week felt a little slow compared to all of the exciting things we had done in Wyoming and Montana, but every week can’t be like that. It could also have to do with us both being under the weather. It doesn’t really matter because I still think this week was more adventurous than our normal Michigan ones where we would just work, watch tv and then go to bed. I can admit that I miss those nights every once in a while, but I really appreciate this opportunity. Thank you for reading, check out my reel for the week below!