Overall, this road trip with its natural beauty and its tourist attractions makes for a wonderful two or three day excursion! The scenery in the Badlands is almost indescribable. It is an area that has a unique, desolate and almost freighting appearance and even more startling than a desert or canyon. It is something you will never forget! I didn't know what to expect when we headed out there as the pictures on the Badlands website don't do it justice. The geology of the place is very interesting too and explained very well at the park's museum. Another interesting aspect is the role this played with ancient native American tribes who tried to explain the complex geology on evil spirits or an evil presence that damned the land to a life of remote isolation that man should fear ... giving the land it's name of "the Badlands."
Towns/Cities You'll Pass By/Through
Wall South Carolina and home of the nearly world famous Wall Drugs is the other 1/2 of this great road trip. Wall Drugs is worth the stop. The size of the store and its variety of "stuff" for sale blew me away. If you have kids, they will LOVE it too! Bring your camera as there are a bunch of neat little quirky photo ops like taking a picture of your child riding the 10 foot Jack-aloupe!! The store seems to be made up of about 4 or 5 medium sized stores all with different focus (art, toys, books, western apparel, etc, etc, etc). There is even a little water fountain park area inside where the little kids can run through the fountains on the warm days. And, the store itself is surrounded by other little tourist shops and restaurants. No it's not even close to a Disney Land but for just about the middle of nowhere, this is the Disney Land of South Dakota (and all the surrounding states for that matter!). It's a visit you will be glad you stopped for. Plan on spending at least 4 hours or so there if you don't want to feel rushed and you like to browse.
Attractions & Points-of-Interests Along the Way
Aside from Wall Drugs and the Badlands Park, Rapid City is a place to spend some time at too. You really could spend a day there as well taking in all the shops and restaurants as well as some of the history. Off the freeway you'll find some newer/large hotels and one even has a truly amazing water park in it (it's got to be the biggest one in SD and probably in all the surrounding states too). My family and I spent most of the day at the water park and never got bored of all the different rides. If I did it all again, I may have went ahead and spent the money on staying at the water park's hotel but we did instead stay at a nice little mom & pop hotel downtown and saved a good chunk of money.
Additional Information
One last piece of advice. If you are military (or retired military) and can stay at Ellsworth Air Force Base billeting you'll save some money and be only a short drive from everything. It would be a great way for you to have a "base camp" from which you can visit the different sections of this road trip, returning each night, and venturing back out in the AM. I stayed at Ellsworth before and their billeting is nearly all brand new!!!
