Want to see our Visited States Data, our State by State Bucket Lists or our Visited Parks and Campground lists?

Then click on the image above to go to our other website.

NEW RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES

THURSDAY

TRAVEL DAY
STOP #207

"The Mount Rushmore State"
is our 32nd visited state

HERE'S A FUN FACT ABOUT SOUTH DAKOTA

South Dakota has more miles of shoreline than Florida.

Tonight we'll be sleeping in our 32nd visitied state, South Dakota. As you can see from the graphic above South Dakota's main claim to fame is Mount Rushmore.

It's on their state postage stamp, the back of their state quarter and it's even on their state flag. So you're probably thinking, we're in South Dakota, when are we going to go and visit?

The simple answer is, not yet. Back when we were planning our route for 2021 we were still in the midst of the worse part of COVID-19. So not to fall into the same trap as we did in 2020, staying stationary for nearly 3 months, we planned a year away from the crowds.

That meant not visiting any National Parks or other popular tourist destinations. The midwest, known as the heartland of the United States, seemed like the perfect solution. We will be spending two and a half weeks in South Dakota, but it will all be in the central and eastern side of the state.

All of the "fun stuff" is on the western edge of the state. While it's tempting to interrupt our planned route and make the 200 mile detour just to see Mount Rushmore, what do we do about seeing Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park, not to mention the Crazy Horse Memorial and the must see Custer State Park.

So it's not like we could go see Mount Rushmore and ignore all the other South Dakota highlights, instead we'll save it all for our next visit, we promise!

Campsite #108 at Newton Hills State Park in Canton, SD

The perfect setting for a campfire.

FRIDAY - Today we set a new record high temperature for our travels. The old record temperature was 96°F set back in late August of 2018 when we were camped just outside of Washington D.C. in a Maryland State Park.

The temperature today soared from an overnight low of 68°F to a blistering 99°F by 4:00 PM. We spent most of the day in a small public library in Canton, SD so Tricia could get some work done.

The cell signal at our campsite seven miles away is spotty at best, even with the booster on, and after several hours of dropped signals we threw in the towel and moved to the library around noon.

We're not sure if this new record will last nearly three years like the last one, because if the forecast is correct, we'll be setting a new even higher record before the end of the week.

In case you're wondering the single air conditioner in THE POD is working great. The temperature inside is a cool 75°F with the A/C on and us tucked back under several nice shade trees. We're doing just fine!

SATURDAY - As we suspected the new high temperature record we set yesterday is now history!

Our new record high temperature was set today at an energy zapping 101°F.

We spoke to few local residents and no one remembers it being this hot this early in the season here in South Dakota. Just our luck!

SUNDAY - Even with the heat we've been dealing with for the last few days we decided to get up early this morning and go for a short hike here in the park.

We checked out the 3/4 mile long Woodland Trail at the back of the park. It's a loop trail that is mostly shaded by a tall dense tree canopy so it wasn't too hot.

The first half of the loop trail follows along the edges of Sargeant Creek. The creek is dry most of the year except in spring time when the snow melts, then it becomes a fairly swift moving waterway judging by the depths of the banks.

At the halfway point of the hike we found out there was a shortcut across the creek that leads back to the campground. We could of hiked the trail and not even needed to drive ROVER over to the trailhead. Oh well, too late now.

We were a little bit leery of walking under this downed tree, but it appears to have been this way for quite a while now.

After just over a hour of hiking we found ourselves once again back at the parking lot where we left ROVER.

It was a very moderate hike with only a couple of minor elevation changes and just what we needed to get out and stretch our legs. Now back into the air conditioning!

Would you like to be notified of new blog posts?

We encourage everyone
to leave their comments
in our Facebook Group!

We would really like to hear from you!

Until next time

TWO PEAS

Labels: