Summary of our first trip of the season

I loved this trip. It was very educational. We did not have time to take the RV out for a trip before hand to make sure everything was working and we had all our gear on board. But we had no problems whatsoever during the trip and we remembered to bring everything. I am constantly amazed by the good quality of our RV. We only had an electrical hook up for one night, at Fort Robinson. The rest of the time we were dry camping and it was often cold. Our furnace runs easily off the battery through the night, we use as many lights as we like, I can take a nice hot shower, we cooked on our grill, in the microwave (off the generator) and on the stove top. Everything was just perfect!

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

Our last stop on this trip was to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. This was a fabulous little last minute addition to our trip. Very nice video and explanation of the fossil beds as well as good displays.



An unexpected bonus is this national monument is located on the ranch of James Cook who was a great friend to the Indians. He received many gifts which are displayed along with their history in the national monument building.



The road home through Nebraska.

Fort Robinson Nebraska State Park

On our way home we stopped at Fort Robinson a Nebraska State Park. This is an interesting place. Very oriented toward kids. I was impressed with all the activities. You could sign up for horseback riding ($16-$22), pony ride for kids 5 and under ($2), tubing down the river ($10), kayaking ($12.50), a stage coach ride ($2), take a meal at the dining room, attend an outdoor steak cook out ($18 adult, $8.50 children), go to see a play at the play house, play in the river going through our campground, swim at the pool ($5), play tennis on the courts, ride bikes around the grounds, attend a cookout ($9 adult, $6 child), visit the free museum, visit the pay museum, or take a jeep tour to see the scenery ($10) . It was kind of like going to a dude ranch in Colorado without paying the high $$$$s and had a wider variety of activities. I think it would be a great family destination. Most things had a fee but they were very reasonable.

We had a lovely camp site for $24 with electric (this included the state park fee).

Many of the sites are tight but we got one with a huge side yard. The grill to the left is for our spot.

The free museum covers the history of the fort.

It is such a shame that it was involved in the terrible treatment of the Indians in this region at the time. So that is kind of depressing to read about. But you have to admire what Nebraska is doing with it to make it an affordable vacation option for families.
Link to info about Fort Robinson:
Fort Robinson

South Dakota Air and Space Museum

We stopped at the South Dakota Air and Space museum. There is a bus tour there to the local air force base which visits a missile silo also. While we didn't take the tour I think it could have been interesting. The museum however is very interesting. There are alot of aircraft outside with informational signs. Inside there are alot of displays with video and informational signs. This is all free and well worth a visit.

Prairie Homestead

I really enjoyed our visit to Prairie Homestead. This site has a short video about the family that originally homesteaded this sod house, prairie wear for those who want to dress up and take pics and a tour of the original sod house and outbuildings. You can also pet the goat and see some ponies. A fun and educational stop. Especially for those of us who had read about sod houses. It is very interesting to be in one and imagine what it would have been like living there.







Their gift shop was my favorite of the trip.

The Badlands

After our missile silo visit we toured through the Badlands National Park.

What can one say about the Badlands? It is spectacularly bad land. It was named for it's difficulty in crossing.

Minuteman Missile silo

From the tour they give you directions to a minuteman missile silo. There is a guide there that allows you to call in on your cell phone and get an audio tour of the outside of the silo. The orange chain is to keep cattle out. You can disregard the sign that says use of deadly force is authorized for trespassers.

This is a picture of the silo cover.

This is a replica missile in the silo.


We weren't aware of it at this point but at the air and space museum that we visited later they had a tour to the Air Force base that included visiting the inside of a silo. They also had the training facility equipment for the command center as part of the museum and had a nice audio overview of the functions.

Minuteman Missile tour

We stopped by the Minuteman Missile national historic site. They offer a 12 min. video and then send you on your way to the tour site which is about 5 miles away on I-90. Be sure to get to the historic site at least a half hour before your tour to give yourself time to watch the video and drive to the tour site. Even better get there 45 min. in advance so you can look at the displays. Right now the last tour was at 3 p.m. even though the historic site is open till 4:30. The tours available when we were there were 9, 10, 11, 1, 2 and 3.

Picture of control center where the tour is. We really enjoyed this tour. You walk through the living quarters before heading underground to the control room. They explain who lived there, what they did and what the schedule was like. Very interesting glimpse into history.

Cute pizza box painting on heave thick steel door to underground control center.

Stairs to the underground control center. There is also an elevator which is what is used by the tour.

Big shocks to absorb earth movement caused by bombs. The control room was supported by 4 big shock absorbers to allow 2 ft of movement in any direction.

The chairs for the missile operators contained seatbelts so they wouldn't be thrown about and could do their jobs. In addition they were on rails so they could move the chairs back and forth in front of the equipment.

Big, old heavy equipment before modern day computers.




This tour is free and well done.

Cedar Pass Campground Badlands National Park

We spent two nights at the Badlands on-site campground Cedar Pass. It is a very nice facility charging $16 per night for no hook-ups. I think it was $24 for electric sites. If you go the two gentlemen working the gate have no idea how to place RVs. They say they will assign you a site. Just take the number, drive around, select the one you want and then go back and have them change it. Since the campground was almost empty we asked for an exterior site. They gave us an interior one. We had them change it to an exterior but they selected one that you could barely put a compact car in. We also saw the one they originally gave us which was on a slope. We picked a wide level site at the edge of the campground with plenty of elbow room between it and the other sites. Both nights we saw they had put some hapless tent campers in the sites they originally assigned to us. Even for tent campers there were many more desirable locations.

Here is the site we ended up in. It was beautiful.

We had a good view of the badlands.

The dogs await the opportunity to explore.

The view just beyond the campground.

The park isn't really good for dogs as dogs aren't allowed on the trails but we made do with the loop to the amphitheater and dump station.

Lots of good sites were empty. They should let folks select their own site just like most campgrounds.

Wall Drug

On our way to the Badlands we stopped at Wall Drug. It was a great store with some good shopping. I really liked the galleries of old photos. In addition it had a very realistic T-Rex.


Across the street and at the end of the block one of the stores had a wildlife pelt museum for free which was interesting. The store across from this one seemed to have the best price on black hills gold.

Bear Lodge National Forest Service Campground

Bear Lodge National Forest Service Campground was an excellent choice. We were the only ones there when we arrived. I think a couple of cars came in later but we didn't hear the occupants. They were gone in the morning. I think it was only $10 plus $2 per pet per night so $14 for us.

Our site was nice and level with trees. The campground was surrounded with wire to keep the cattle out. I talked to two guys fixing the fence who indicated the area was thick with mountain lions. We had a dead raccoon on our site. Who knows how he died. They said a bear was shot just the other day near their property nearby. Thankfully we saw none of this exciting wildlife. We did see some deer though.

Devils Tower

We had intended to take a day off from site seeing but were running low on some foods so headed for the WalMart in Rapid City. From there we could get cell phone service and were able to see that the rain we were experiencing wasn't going to let up. So decided to head out to see Devils Tower in Wyoming instead.

We saw it through the rain.



We had intended to stay at the on-site campground but it was tiny with tiny sites so we headed on down the road to a National Forest service campground we could see on our map.

Sheridan Lake South Shore National Forest Campground

I loved, loved, loved Sheridan Lake National Forest Campground. It was my favorite campground the entire trip. It was also $28 but it was worth it.

Our beautiful campsite.



A view from the picnic table.

You can see a boat passing by.

We hiked back to the entrance booth to pay our fee. It was quite a hike but allowed us to see the other sites.

Many were absolutely gorgeous.






On the way back we walked along the lake.

Blossom got to go for a swim.

Blossom explores the dock after her swim.

She says she isn't quite ready for dock diving.


Sunshine ate his dinner but Blossom is too busy watching for wildlife to eat hers.


Sunshine is ready to head down the trail.

Blossom scouts out ahead.

This is my kind of trail says Sunshine. No people.

And pretty scenery.


This campground had everything we love in a campground. It was off the road with nice natural sites. It was also really spread out so many places to walk. The lake was pretty and there was even a trail head with several trails off of it for us to explore. The other side of the lake had a marina which we didn't explore but the camp host said they rent boats and there was a swim beach. I could have spent a week here.