Scenic Drives | Travel + Photo | A blog by Nathan Busscher

Posts Tagged ‘scenic drives’

Road Trip to the Badlands and Black Hills… in my Dad’s Corvette

Saturday, July 16th, 2011

I’ve been on several road trips before but have never had a ride like this. Having a car that can do 0-60 in under 4 seconds and can handle speeds in excess of 100 mph with ease was a real treat. Having a great ride is only one part of a great road trip. The destination, the Black Hlls and Bad Lands of south dakota, in our case made the trip even better. We have travelled to the ends of the earth and back and yet were pleasantly surprised on the amazing landscapes, wildlife, monuments, hiking, and other adventures that South Dakota had to offer. Who knew that a speculator destination was so close to home. We only had a week to travel around but it’s on our list of places we’d like to return to.

Our first stop was the Badlands. The weather on the day we drove through was pretty bad but the dark, gloomy sky made for some dramatic photos.

Badlands South Dakota

After our short detour to the Bad Lands we continued to the Black Hills. The first day we explored Custer State Park and did a few short hikes with some high speed driving through the switch back curves between trailheads. Sylvan Lake, the most photogenic spot was also the most accessible. It’s only a short hike around the lake but highly recommended. There are a lot of hiking trails in the area and the few we did were great. We were there just after memorial day weekend so a lot of the trails were pretty busy but once you got a little distance away from the trailhead you would only occasionally run into another hiker.

Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park

The most popular attraction in the area is Mount Rushmore so you have to go see it. I didn’t have high expectations and frankly thought it was going to be a waste of time. I wanted to get the most time as possible taking the Vette on the many scenic drives. However, we were surprised once again. The pictures of Mount Rushmore don’t do it justice. It is HUGE. But beyond the scale of the monument the history behind it was also very fascinating.