We have zig-zagged across the country and, boy-oh-boy, do we have some gems to share! Browse campsites, off-road trails, scenic outlooks, oddities, museums, hiking trails, and more.
There are monarch butterflies in Minnesota. To locals, this is no surprise. But to me, I was impressed. Monarchs can travel up to 3000 miles to their winter grounds in Mexico. These are the only butterflies to travel such great distances. And yet, in the summer, many return to Minnesota, where they were born.
Minnesota comes from the Dakota word for "clear blue water." It's an appropriate name for the Land of 10,000 lakes. The Dakota, along with the Ojibwe, eventually found themselves contending for these lakes with the state's early European settlers: emigrants from Scandinavia and Germany. The communities that sprouted from these northern European roots became fodder for Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon and other portions of his celebrated radio show: Prairie Home Companion. Despite the Olly and Lena jokes, the state is ranked among the best educated in the United States. Even so, with winters recorded as low as −60 °F, there's a reason we crossed the border in the summer.
Part of a tourist trap, it may be, but how often can you enjoy a burger and slice of strawberry rhubarb pie on a vintage 1950s train? The lunch counter is classic and the burgers, unlike most stops of late, are actually good! The pie connoisseur may be disappointed by the thick crust and exceptionally sweet pie but, hey, you can't win every time.
As if to underscore that these missile bases were truly in the middle of nowhere, a herd of cows and calves graze by the parking lot of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Delta-09. Not much has changed here from the 1960s when the silos were still in operation.
The bluffs, spires, and gorges of the Badlands National Park are thanks to delicate rock which is easily eroded by wind and rain. One of the locations that these dramatic formations are best experienced is along the Window Trail.
Notch Trail is not for those afraid of heights. It doesn't help that the rope ladder to the butte shelf is easier to climb up than down. But for those with the constitution to scramble the 1.5 mile loop along a butte outcropping, there are magnificent and exclusive vistas to be experienced
The Badlands National Park has a wealth of short hikes for visitors to enjoy. The Cliff Shelf Nature Trail is only a half mile boardwalk loop trails through a small juniper forest and sporting views of eroded sandstone buttes.
Badlands National Park can get remarkably hot in the summer. Granted, it's no Death Valley, but the idea of an extended hike in the midday heat is unwelcome. So, the quarter mile loop of the Fossil Exhibit Trail is an opportunity to get out and stretch ones legs without working up a sweat.
Buffalo may wander through Sage Creek Campground. Tent campers are warned that buffalo may try to scratch themselves against the tends. It's all fun and games, though, until the buffalo roles.
No, we cannot get enough of bears. Sure, we saw a couple back in Glacier, but when we were driving through the Black Hills of South Dakota and saw a sign for Bear Country USA, there was little question what we were doing next.