South Dakota: Day 2 - The Badlands National Park - Notch Trail, Door Trail, Loop Rd, Yellow Mound, Prairie Dog Town & Alpine Inn

Day 2:

I was up at 5:15 with the the hour time change and spent an hour outside on our cabin patio with a direct view to the sunrise over the sharply eroded Badland rocks. I was anxious to get everyone up so we could start enjoying this unique part of the world and do it before the temperatures spiked again today, with what was supposed to be the record for the hottest temperatures of the year.

Our priorities were Notch Trail and Door Trail. Notch was the longest trail to hike today at 1.5 miles, round trip, and was the perfect place for the kids to climb and climb. Surprising to me, the famous ladder that was here, didn’t intimidate Delaney at all and it lead to an exciting hike. At 9AM, it was already getting hot but this was the place that truly made you feel you were on another planet.

The visitor center and the famous Loop road, through the Badlands was next, which included several stops including the Fossil Walk to learn about all the prehistoric animals they have found here.

Yellow mounds overlook was stunning.

Pinnacles Overlook was like a miniature grand canyon.

Around 1 PM, we exited the Badlands and drove about 90 minutes to the Black Hills and Hill City and checked into our “cabin,” a 3 bedroom, 2 living room, very spacious mobile home that we would call home for the next 5 nights. It also had a sweet patio that backed up to a big forest area and we had wildlife in our backyards at all time, including incredible wild turkeys that we would watch, at sunset, fly up to the top of the tallest pines to "roost" for the night to be safe. We loved watching the deer and the turkeys play with each other.

We had already heard from people in The Badlands about the famous restaurant in the cute town of Hill City, called Alpine Inn. It was with in walking distance and the menu had 3 items on it: a bacon wrapped filet, a German dish and a hot dog as the kid's meal option. It was crazy inexpensive and we had to get on a waitlist at 4:15 in order to have a seat when it opened at 5. You wouldn't believe the wait when we left.