We managed to wake up at 5:30am and got on the road early again. Chris did the drive in 2 days (Minnesota to Utah) and I wanted to take 3 days back as I don’t enjoy driving long distances as much. We still have a lot of ground to cover, hence the early starts.
Because we couldn’t find any good coffee options on the way, we drove straight to Mt. Rushmore. I had never seen it and it looked quite a bit smaller than I expected.
Granted I first saw it in the distance and it was larger when we were closer. I enjoyed seeing it in person after having seen images of it all my life.
A couple towns later we found a Perkins and had breakfast and coffee. It was acceptable.
After that we drove through the Badlands and we really enjoyed the scenery. I had misunderstood what it was and thought it was a small version of the Grand Canyon. In fact, its an area of slowly eroding sea bed that has interesting looking peaks and valleys and crags. Plus prairie dogs here and there. It was really pretty.
From there we ended up in Mitchell, South Dakota. We found a highly regarded Mexican restaurant that was excellent on it’s own terms and was probably the best food in town.