Maddi left the Wall Drug parking lot around 9:00 am to return to the boondocking area and find a new camp. I packed up and followed soon after. I had to drive through a herd of cattle to get there.
Unlike the previous night, there was no shortage of campsites available, even more than when I’d first pulled in. Maddi and I even managed to get our original spot back! It seems people come up here to spend the night, since boondocking isn’t allowed in the park itself, then go back into the park in the morning to go exploring. That works for me!
I spent my morning working and fighting a new big technological problem. I’ll get into several of these issues in my next post, since I want to focus on the positive in this one: a motorcycle ride through Badlands National Park.
This is not my first visit to the area. During Sturgis Bike Week in 2019, Indian loaned me a Springfield Dark Horse to ride around, explore the area, and enjoy it. But this time, I’m doing it my way, on my bike, and without the time constraints that made me cram as much as possible into a short time, which is the problem with the average vacation.
I started by entering the park through the Pinnacle Gate, less than a mile from camp. This is the first park I’ve been to since my last America the Beautiful annual pass expired in October, so I was happy to buy another one. It’ll be good through the end of next July and get me into whatever parks I want, with discounts on camping as well, if I choose. As the ranger said, if you go to three parks in a year it pays for itself. I’ve even done three in a day before.
The next part of the ride was a repeat of what I’d done in 2019, the Badlands Loop Road across the park. The smooth paved road winds slowly through the landscape, curving between the multicolored hills of the Badlands. There are many viewpoints and overlooks. I stopped at a few, but given that I’m already camping with an amazing view of the Badlands, I didn’t feel the need to see them all or take as many pictures as I did in 2019. The lighting was much better for my previous visit when it was bright and sunny, so if I write a book about this adventure at some point, I can cheat and use my better pictures from then. At this point, I was just enjoying the ride.
I continued east into grassland, through a few more swoops between colorful hills on the east side of the park, then turned down Route 377 toward the town of Interior. I’d come in this way on Route 44 and originally intended to retrace my route up Conata Basin Road. Several miles of gravel would be no issue on the bike. But as I got to this point, I saw dark clouds over the park to my north, probably a pop-up thunderstorm rolling through. I decided to stay on Route 44 all the way to the town of Scenic, riding all the way around the south side of the storm, then return to the park up Sage Creek Road after it had passed. This is how I’d come into the park in 2019, not realizing it was 25 miles of dirt on an Indian bagger. I made it okay, but only because I took it super slowly. I wasn’t taking any chances on a big heavy bike I didn’t own that I didn’t have much experience on.
Most of this Route 44 blast was an empty 65 mph two-lane highway. But there were a couple of miles shut down to one lane of gravel. When it was my turn to go, I stood up on the pegs and easily maintained the 35 mph speed limit. At the other side, the flagger pointed me where I should return to the right side of the road, then gave me a big thumbs up. Back on the pavement, I resumed warp speed.
This construction zone was a good warm-up for Sage Creek Road itself. Though sometimes it’s washboard, it was quite smooth for my ride back into the park. It was also a great way to familiarize myself with how the bike handles on its “new” tires. These are exactly the conditions they’re made for, easy dirt that isn’t too loose or rocky. My speed increased with my comfort, and though I thought the 50 mph speed limit was ridiculous when I was on the Indian, I caught myself cruising comfortably at this speed on the straightaways. I’d slow down for curves whether I needed to or not, but this road was a whole lot of fun on the proper bike. I passed and exchanged waves with a few other adventure riders going in the opposite direction.
I had to stop at Roberts Prairie Dog Town, which is exactly what the name implies, a huge prairie dog colony. Even outside this area, I noticed that the prairie dogs out here are fearless. Some of them stood on the side of the road and didn’t even flinch as I rode past them. Here, I found one that was so used to humans it seemed to pose for the camera.
Before long, I was back on the paved Badlands Loop, and soon made my way back to camp. Maddi had moved from our shared spot to an outcropping all her own. I can’t blame her, and almost made the same move myself, but decided I’d rather not pack up again, since I’m already packing up Wednesday night to head to Get On! ADV Fest Thursday morning.
This time I actually got to enjoy the sunset instead of running off into town to avoid a nasty storm. I caught a few Golden Hour shots in the process.
This one’s going in the next Lister calendar!
It was a quiet night until a few more pop-up thunderstorms rolled through. I’d left my bike, stove, and camp chairs outside, but nothing that couldn’t get wet, so I didn’t worry about bringing stuff inside. Everything was fine in the morning, except for my latest technological problem. That’s a story for next time.
Smokey Da Van 