I stayed the night at the Four Seasons in Rapid City. No, not the Four Seasons you’re probably thinking of. This was a cheap motel in town. I did my laundry at the One Stop Shop and left Rapid City.

Mount Rushmore is in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I drove the scenic road through the Black Hills, passing through several tunnels and around tall spiky rock formations. The road continues through Custer State Park, where there are bison, deer, and donkeys. The donkeys were left by prospectors and are tame, aggressively begging when cars drive up. While I was taking pictures, one of the young ones stuck his nose in my stomach and wouldn’t leave me alone.

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This morning I packed up and headed to the lower unit of the Badlands. As promised, there were more badlands there. The Visitor Center lady had told me about a road that I can travel on Window Table if I have a high clearance vehicle so I wanted to try it.

The road was a few miles of normal dirt road up to a scenic overlook. Other cars had made it up there. But there was a path beyond that with a sign warning that it’s only for high clearance vehicles. So I headed that way.

This road stressed my Cherokee close to the limits of its 4WD capabilities. Half of the time my car was angled so much I thought I’d tip over. There were several 2-3 foot steps to go up or down. Spectacular views though. I finally stopped and turned around when I got to a step down that was too big to risk with no one else around.

On the way out I drove through a town called Scenic, population 12. Next stop was Rapid City, SD.

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