Down Bad Crying in the Badlands

Omaha, NE to the Black Hills, SD | Badlands National Park | June 2025

After saying goodbye to family in Omaha, we picked up some groceries and began to make our way North to South Dakota. The first day was hard, there’s no other way to put it. Everything reminded us of Charlotte. I suppose that’s what happens when you take your dog everywhere with you, her memory lives on everywhere we go. She’s leading us down every trail, she’s napping in the shade, she’s sniffing around a campsite, she’s wading in the water. We had originally planned to only drive 2 1/2 hours to a campsite on the Missouri River on the NE/SD border, but when we arrived in the early afternoon, we decided we needed to keep going. It was hot, there was very little to do, and we just didn’t feel like facing the rest of the day without her. Whenever we traveled with Charlotte, it always felt important to keep driving days on the shorter side and find a comfortable spot for her early on in the day. But now without her, it mattered less how far we drove, and we could sleep in a Walmart parking lot as a last resort for all we cared.

We got out for pictures and a short walk at Mulberry Bend Overlook on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River. Then continued on into South Dakota. We ended up taking back roads through South Eastern SD to tag two counties that were making holes in our map. We did a drive by of Mitchell and the Corn Palace before pushing North of I-90 in the name of new counties and killing the day.

In the town of Miller we found a town park in which we could camp for free. There were a couple of long term RV-ers there, but otherwise we were alone with our feelings. Strong winds came in over night, but we got a few good laps walking through the park both that night and the next morning.

The next day we continued West along US-14 back across the Missouri at Pierre, eventually turning South to hit I-90 and the Badlands. Driving made us sad, especially for me as I missed having the weight of Char on my lap. But the one thing that was helping us be less emotional was doing things together that we couldn’t do with Charlotte, so as soon as we entered the National Park we stopped at the first major trail lot for the Notch trail. We set out for the Notch, but only made it as far as the ‘climbing section’ where the trail goes up a steep wall with log steps. All the people heading down kept coming and a line was forming up at the bottom, so we didn’t really feel like waiting in line. We meandered back to the parking lot and decided to take the Window Trail and then the Door Trail out to its end well out into the Badlands.

By this time, it was starting to get warm, so we headed down to the Visitor Center for cancellation stamps and to inquire about camping further West. We took our time walking through the exhibits, especially the fossil room — it had been a while since we had gone into a visitor center together. We ate lunch on the road and drove the park road West. Since Badlands is an open trail park, we decided to stop on the side of the road and wander up into gullys, looking for fossils on our way.

After our walkabout, we followed the park roads West towards the Wall exit, but then took gravel roads further west out towards Sage Creek Campground. It was a nice spot in a free campground, but very exposed to the afternoon sun and no reception. So instead we decided to push further West to where we wanted to spend most of our time: The Black Hills.

Charlotte in the Badlands, 2017