Home to the Badlands (Summer 2019 Vacation Leg 1)
Part-Time Paradise Summer 2019!
What a trip we had. We traveled for 16 days across South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and back through Kansas to home base. This post takes us through the first two days of the trip from home to our campground at Badlands National Park.
Day 1 – 28 June 2019 – Kansas City to Missouri National Recreational River to Valentine, Nebraska
We had Patty all packed and ready to rock the night before. We set out around 6 a.m. and headed north. Day 1 and 2 had a lot of driving planned to get us up to Badlands National Park by 29 June. The drive up to South Dakota was all interstate and uninteresting.
Missouri National Recreational River – Yankton, South Dakota
We arrived to our first pit stop, Missouri National Recreational River, right at lunch time. We were surprised to find that there wasn’t a visitor center, only a few exhibits in the lobby of the headquarters. The kids grabbed some Junior Ranger books and we headed back out to Patty to grab some lunch.
After finishing lunch and Junior Ranger books, we headed back inside so the kids could get their badges. The exhibits noted there was a park video. We asked to watch it, but the only place to show the video was their conference room and there was a meeting occurring, so we couldn’t watch the movie.
As stated in numerous posts before, we love the National Park Service’s Junior Ranger Program. The kids are hooked. We plan trips to visit as many National Park Service Units to feed their interest in the program. 99% of them we learn a bunch about obscure history, science, or both and we wish we budgeted more time into our visits. So I didn’t do much research for Missouri National Recreational River other than they had the Junior Ranger Program. This NPS unit is focused on preserving stretches of the Missouri River. Unfortunately there aren’t facilities to help tell it’s plan unlike Buffalo National River and Niobrara National Scenic River, which we visited next. If we wanted to hit the water, it would have been great. Getting in the water wasn’t our interest at the time.
Valentine, Nebraska
We departed Yankton and drove towards our home for the night, Valentine, Nebraska. The drive along Nebraska 137 and Nebraska 12 were quite beautiful. Lots of elevation change, sweeping views of the prairie, and quaint towns made the drive go quick.
We planned to stay the night at Valentine City Park for a cheap overnight. One of the reviews for the park said, “…though there aren’t any hook ups…” Jack read, “though there aren’t MANY hook ups.” So when we arrived, we were a bit dumbfounded that the internet lied to us. After a re-read, of the review it all came clear. We drove around the small park. The spots were not very level, the mosquitoes were on the warpath, and it was pretty dang hot to camp with out the AC. So a quick Google and we found ourselves checking into Wacky West Travel Park.
Wacky West was a good spot to overnight with full hook ups. We enjoyed a comfortable night of full hook up campground life.
Day 2 – 29 June 2019 – Niobrara National Scenic River to Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge to Minuteman Missile National Historic Site to Badlands National Park
Sunrise woke up the dogs of the campground and by default, us. Campgrounds have pros (AC, long showers, etc) but have their cons too (noise, absence of nature, etc). The Badlands weren’t that close so we needed to get moving anyway. Before we hit the road, we made a stop at Niobrara National Scenic River.
Niobrara National Scenic River
Niobrara’s Visitor Center is a few blocks from the campground. After the short drive we stopped in to complete the Junior Ranger Program and see if there was anything to explore. The exhibits were informative and as always, the ranger was great with the kids. After swearing in the kids, the ranger suggested that we check out Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge and Fort Falls inside the reserve. We weren’t sorry for listening.
Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge and Fort Falls
Fort Niobrara NWR is a few miles east of Valentine, Nebraska. We made the short drive and found our way to the Auto Tour road. On our quick drive we saw prairie dogs, deer, and some interesting history related to Fort Niobrara. We parked the truck at the Fort Falls trailhead and made the short quarter-mile hike to the falls. Wow. It was worth the hike and time to stop.
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
We wanted to stay at Valentine longer and explore, but the drive to the Badlands wasn’t getting shorter and we planned to stop at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site as well. So we hitched up Patty and drove the 2.5 hours to our next stop.
Minuteman Missile NHS is just north of the Badlands. There are three locations that make up the park: the visitor center, the Delta-09 self guided site, and the launch control facility and Delta-01 site. Again, a bad research job…we thought we were going to grab tickets for Delta-01 for the next day. Ha! Those tickets are sold out seven months in advance. Yet another destination to re-visit another day. Dad planning failure aside, we toured the visitor center and Delta-09.
The visitor center does a good job trying to describe the purpose for having 1.2 megaton missiles planted all across the northern Midwest. The video in the visitor center did a particularly good job of describing the Cold War to the kids. We had some good discussions about why governments would want to do this and trying to comprehend the destruction that one of the ICBMs could create at its target let alone 100s across the Midwest. The NPS also does a good job highlighting the sacrifices that the airmen that manned the facilities and citizens that lived near them endured. Regardless of where you sit on the fence on nuclear war, those folks took on a lot on behalf of the country.
This is another great NPS unit that helps us as parents talk about difficult topics. Conflict is all over the news constantly. I know they don’t have the full story developed in their minds, but this was a wealth of context to understand the cost in blood and treasure of two countries resorting to war.
Cedar Pass Campground, Badlands National Park
We hopped back in the truck and towed Patty to our new home for a few nights, Cedar Pass Campground at Badlands National Park. On our way into the park, we watched a tornado form about 25 miles south of us. It was an amazing and terrifying site all at once. We learned later that while the tornado was near stationary for 15-20 minutes, only three structures sustained moderate damage and no injuries were reported. This is our Instagram post below with a nice, calm shot of the campground and the tornado. Crazy weather day.
That’s where we’ll end this one. We’ll pick up a post soon with us exploring Badlands National Park.
-See you out there
Part-Time Paradise
2 thoughts on “Home to the Badlands (Summer 2019 Vacation Leg 1)”
So enjoying your trip. I worked on the minuteman missiles back I early 70s and now that museum or soon to be museum has my uniforms, medals, etc. I was able to tour everything and knew more than the rangers because I lived it for three years.
It is really a neat NPS Unit. The kids really enjoyed it. We hope to get back and do the tour next summer.