Post #12. A bit of pretty and a whole lot of ugly

 South Dakota.  2 highlights and a lot of junk miles.

Sunday morning, we left Spearfish, SD and quickly entered Spearfish Canyon.  A beautiful stretch with winding roads through a deep canyon with sky high cliffs and some of the last green we’d see for a while.


   

20 miles of this scenery made the miles fly by.  Fellow rider, Pat grinding her way up the canyon.

Then it got ugly.  After leaving the canyon, we were greeted by miles and miles of bland farm and ranch land straddling the road with endless rollers.  However, Sunday’s ride ended in Rapid City, SD with the next day being our second rest day of the trip.  A couple of my rest day highlights below:


    

That’s the dog of the day, Virgo. I met him at Lost Cabin Brewing.  His owners seemed like nice people but wouldn’t part with him.  The second picture is today’s joke of the day.  Still waiting to see the atheist billboard lecturing people.



   

Tuesday, we rode the stretch that was one of the highlights of my 2018 trip and it didn’t disappoint.  The Badlands of South Dakota is a landscape unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  With all of the stops and picture-taking the trip through the 30+ miles took much longer than it should have but well worth the extra time.  Perfect pavement all the way from one end of the park to the other.  This picture is Trek guide, Blake coasting down the Badlands Loop Road.  When we left the park, Mother Nature instantly brought us back to reality with the remaining 20 miles into a sidewind and headwind until we reached our destination.  That’s where the whole lot of ugly began.  The ugly continued for 115 miles on Wednesday, a particularly windy day and despite Thursday’s wind being mild it was another 76 miles of hay fields, corn fields and dry, harvested farmland.  

If you don’t believe me about the South Dakota winds, see the pictures below showing some of the sights during a pretty miserable Wednesday.


   


Out

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