Into the Badlands

White River Town Park was an extremely pleasant stay. However, the spaces aren’t wide enough to set up any kind of camp, so it’s best to just use it for a quick overnight. I worked in the morning, then packed up and moved on.

After getting gas, I followed a horrible 24 miles of Route 44. The speed limit was 65, but the road was so rough I could only take it at 45-50 or it felt like my entire rig was going to fall apart inside and out. After crossing a county line the road got much better, and I was able to resume full cruising speed. It was a relatively short drive today, just under two hours.

I have no idea why Google decided it was a good idea to take me down several miles of this gravel road instead of straight in the entrance to Badlands National Park in the town of Interior. But as soon as we entered the park, the road turned back to pavement.

With that, I’ve officially returned to places I’ve been before. When I airdropped into Sturgis in 2019, my first big day trip was a ride out to Badlands National Park. The otherworldly scenery is no less impressive this time around, but it doesn’t surprise me the way it did back then.

I pulled in at a “picnic stop” and decided to do exactly that, have some lunch and let Lister roam a bit. I’d crossed time zones again, so it was a good time to start retraining my stomach to the new time. With only a little difficulty in the small lot, I managed to get turned around and head back toward where I’d hoped to find a place to camp.

Did I ever find a place! After leaving Badlands National Park, I went to a boondocking area in Buffalo Gap National Grassland, between the park and the town of Wall. There’s a dirt loop around a ridge with many places to pull off and set up camp. I found one with plenty of space and decided to make it my home for the next few days.

There was a red skoolie parked in one corner of a rather large pull-off, so I set up in the other corner. Spotting the motorcycle on the back of the bus told me that as fellow riders we could look out for each other. I ended up chatting with the owner when she was out walking her dog, who by pure luck ended up being Maddi, a.k.a. fire.andfur who I follow on Instagram! She didn’t know me, but I’m her first follower who’s ever spotted her in the wild.

I set up a couple of chairs and admired the scenery for a few hours. It was windy up on the hill. Opening up my doors and windows blew the fly infestation completely out of my van! Problem solved.

At dinner time it was too windy to cook outside, so I took the bike into town to have a buffalo burger at Wall Drug. It’s a bit of a tourist trap, kind of like South of the Border on the east coast, complete with billboards stretching for hundreds of miles along the interstate. However, when I was here for Sturgis Bike Week in 2019, they served me the best buffalo burger I’d ever had, so I wanted to see if that was still true. It is.

---

When I returned to camp, dark clouds were rolling in, and the wind was picking up even more. I checked the weather report and forecast, and there was a severe thunderstorm watch in effect. According to the radar, a nasty band was heading straight toward me. Maddi had told me about some storms approaching that she was worried about, and it seems those concerns were justified. Only hours after arriving at one of the best boondock spots I’d ever found, I left, retreating into town to go park on pavement behind Wall Drug for the night. I didn’t want to get stuck, but more importantly I didn’t want to take the full brunt of the wind, nor be the highest point around in a thunderstorm. Maddi followed soon afterward, and told me that our prime spots had been taken immediately after we left.

We went for a walk around Main Street, but it was late enough that the sidewalks had already rolled up. The only thing open was a bar that she couldn’t take her dog inside. The rain started, and we retreated to our homes for the night. Despite losing our spot, I think moving into town was the right move. There was no hail, but several thunderstorms with heavy rain came through. The first one had very strong winds, which rocked my van like crazy. Between that shaking and the noise of rain on the roof, I was awake past midnight. But finally the weather calmed down, and I was able to sleep.

It was an otherwise quiet night. From what I’ve read, overnight parking is technically illegal in Wall, but the cops tend to look the other way in the Wall Drug parking lot. I had no trouble at all. Now to try and find a place to set up camp — again.