Bringing the Winnie to Colorado

We had been wanting to do some camping in our Winnie in Colorado but we were waiting to find a place to store it here in Colorado. We finally found a great place that was nearby and they finally had an opening in June so we flew to Minnesota and drove our Winnie back with our tow car (Ford Edge). Our son had been using our Edge while we were in Colorado so unfortunately this forced him to have to buy a vehicle of his own (but we helped him out a little with that). So we flew into Minnesota to drive the Winnie back to Colorado. We took the scenic route through South Dakota on the way back and stopped at a few places.

CORN PALACE

Our first stop was in Mitchell, SD at the Corn Palace. Being that I grew up in "corn country - a.k.a. Iowa", I thought this might be an interesting thing to see. A building made out of corn? Since we were traveling through and not too far from there we made a stop. It is located in the middle of town but we were able to find a parking lot to park our big rig. (we later realized there was a designated parking lot for RV's). I would say it was somewhat interesting to see how they created a picture out of corn. I had always enjoyed seeing the seed art at the MN State Fair and this was just a larger version. The artwork was very large. There were some on the outside of the building and some of the previous artwork was inside the building. There was also a popcorn concession stand (but of course!) and a store on the main floor of the big auditorium/gym. The store had everything you could imagine related to corn. There was also educational displays and a video that talked about the history of the Corn Palace. The hallways were lined with old photos of all the previous artwork. Every year they change the artwork to a different theme. Didn't spend a lot of time there but still kinda cool to see. Something different.

SIOUX FALLS

Our next stop was Falls Park in Sioux Falls. I had seen some pictures of this on a friends Facebook and wanted to see this area. It was a pretty cool sight to see. Of course I took a ton of pics there. We walked around and Jeff read about the history while I took pictures. Great place to come and relax and listen to the water flowing or have a picnic. Also in the park is an observatory tower, cafe and the remains of an old mill. Interesting facts: The park covers 123 acres and an average of 7,400 gallons of water drop 100 ft. over the course of the Falls each second.

BADLANDS

Next on our scenic drive was to the Badlands!! Even though I had heard of the Badlands, I never realized what they really were. They reminded me of a small version of the Grand Canyon. The Badlands are dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. We drove through the park and stopped at some of the look out points. Once again, a photographers haven for photos and we also got some cool shots of our motorhome with the Badlands as a backdrop. Definitely worth seeing. Not much vegetation living in the Badlands and very few wildlife, but we did see several prairie dogs which were fun to watch as they popped their heads in and out of their burrows.

OVERNIGHT CAMP

We stopped for the night in Chamberlain, SD at the Oasis Campground just off highway I-90. Got in around 8:00 so didn't really do or go anywhere. Campground was a bit tight for spots. Some spots were so tight you couldn't even use your slideouts because it would hit the tree. Lots of highway noise too.

CUSTER AND DEADWOOD

We then drove to Custer to spend 2 nights at the Custer Crazy Horse Campground. The campground was just outside of town and not far from Crazy Horse Memorial and the State Park. A nice campground but not the best fit for a big rig like ours. Spots were very, very tight. We didn't even have a spot for our picnic table (but then we never really spent much time at the campground anyway). It was built sort of on the side of a hill so driving through the campground was some steeper hills and tight corners but we managed to fit. There were other big rigs in the park with better layouts to their site. Campground owners were nice and guided us to our site and stayed until we were all set up. During our stay in Custer we checked out the town of Custer which is a cute little town with statues of Buffalo scattered throughout town. We ate at a few of the restaurants/bars in Custer...Frontier, Buglin Bull and Gold Pan Saloon. The Frontier had good home-cooked food but the place was dead. Buglin Bull was very busy and had a nice roof-top dining area looking over main street and right across from the Gold Pan Saloon which was the oldest Saloon in the Black Hills and a newly remodeled bar. It was decorated with cowhide and plaid seat covers, wood floors and wood and slate walls. It even had the old style saloon doors. On the walls were various animal heads, bear skin and horns. We stopped in at the Saloon both nights. Sat on the back patio one night and chatted with two nice gentleman who were traveling on motorcycles. We also dropped off our laundry in town and it was the best thing ever! $17 and our laundry was folded nicely and smelling fresh! Our adventure while in Custer consisted of a drive through the Black Hills Forest to Deadwood to tour the old western town. Our first stop was the Mt. Moriah Cemetery to visit Wild Bill and Calamity Jane's tombstones.

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Trip Length: 5 weeks
Blog Entries: 2
Photos: 67
Words: 2292

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Blog Entries

Date	Blog Title	Location
June 12th 2018	Bringing the Winnie to Colorado	North America » United States » South Dakota
July 12th 2018	On the road to Alamosa, Colorado	North America » United States » Colorado » Alamosa