WI to SD

Pretty much a full day of driving, but with two fun stops and an early arrival in the Badlands NP, which left plenty of time to snap some pics before settling into our cabin for the night. Sadly there’s no wifi here, so I probably won’t be able to post this until Wednesday.

First Stop: Hawkeye Point, highest point in Iowa
Hawkeye Point is less than 10 miles south of the Minnesota border, so as we were scootin’ along Rt. 90, we turned south to head toward the high point.

This was quite an adventure since Will brought along only a photo of the site and the GPS coordinates, which would have been super helpful … if we had a GPS. We drove around in circles for a good 30 minutes; Will stopped at a farmers’ co-op and got more detailed directions and we eventually found the place. It’s on private property – a pig farm. The marker is at the end of the corn crib. This is Will’s 30-somethingth HP and my twenty-somethingth. The property owner was mowing her lawn and gave us a smile and a wave as we parked our Jersey plates and walked toward the marker. Funny.

Next stop: Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD
This has been in my sights since Jenn V. crossed the country with her cat, moving from Boston to Seattle, oh-so-many years ago and sent me a postcard from this joint. Sadly they were in the midst of changing the design, so the outside of the palace was not in its usual glory. Here’s a nice picture of one of the murals inside though.


Destination: Badlands National Park
There were storms in the area and the dark skies really made these geological wonders appear even more spectacular. Tomorrow’s agenda includes lots and lots of hiking.