The Ginger Snap Girl On the Road: Badlands

Doesn't Badlands sound like a cool, yet foreboding, ominous place? Something that needs to be experienced?

On our last full day in South Dakota we rode 75 miles east of Rapid City to check out the mystery of the Badlands.

Much of South Dakota is grasslands or prairie's.

After an hour plus of riding past endless prairie's some jagged landscape started to reveal itself off in the distance...we must be getting close.

I'm sure you are dying to know how Badlands got it's name? Because I know I was. The Lakota Indians were the first to dub this area as "mako sika" or land bad. It's a tough place from a survival perspective. It's hot as hell there. There's little water to be found and the landscape is rugged and unforgiving.

It's a place of extremes.

As we approached Badlands the temperatures steadily increased nearly 20 degrees and hovered around the 103 degree mark. We were hot, sweaty and thirsty and didn't know exactly how much further we needed to go. To try to get a little break from the extreme heat, we took cover at a tiny lone biker bar literally in the middle of nowhere to get out of the sun for a few minutes, enjoy a cold beer and splash a little cold water on our faces.

Turns out we were closer to our destination then we thought. Thankfully, just a few miles down the road was the entrance to Badlands National Park.

I'll stop talking now and let the pictures speak for themselves.

Pretty cool, right?

Badlands was badass.

Just outside of Badlands National Park is an itty bitty town called Wall. It's become famous for Wall Drug Store and their gimmick of enticing in weary travelers with "Free Ice Water". We were definitely a little weary and thirsty. We ended our trip to Badlands with some nice cool free ice water and more importantly, with some delicious ice cream. Because we all know that ice cream makes everything better. And it did!