We visited Badlands in May 2016 during Big Trip #1.

We moved an hour east to a little campground in Interior, SD, for a night to more easily access Badlands National Park than we could from Custer. Interior is a funny little town with not much to offer, but that was ok because our campsite was incredible and we wanted to spend our time hanging out there instead of in town.

Campground

Badlands Interior Campground itself is nothing special: it’s tucked behind a little hotel, with a tiny (not yet open) pool, and wifi that doesn’t reach far beyond the office. The camp store shelves were pretty bare and the (also not yet open) restaurant looked like a storage room. The place was mostly empty, and we got a site at the end of the row with views to die for. The scenery at our picnic table had a horse pasture in the foreground and the Badlands in the background. The National Park entrance is a mile down the highway, and “downtown” Interior is a couple blocks away.

Another potentially great option: There is an RV campground just inside the entrance to the National Park, so even closer to the Badlands backdrop, that looked gorgeous, but it only offers power and we needed full hookups.

Eating and Drinking

Pickings are slim in Interior. The campground office had a few menus on display and the only one that seemed remotely interesting was the restaurant located in the National Park by the visitor center. We picked up lunch to go and ate it at an overlook in the park. We got the Sioux Indian Tacos, because who doesn’t love a giant pile of slop? Well, we don’t. After eating most of our tacos and enjoying them less and less, we decided the experience was strike two for frybread tacos and vowed to never order them again!

There was one bar open in Interior the day we were in town, so we went for a beer to at least experience something in the town and not just blow through. The Wagon Wheel Bar is a dive, in a hilarious way, staffed by a friendly barkeep and decorated with old-timey beer memorabilia. We only stayed for one beer because we were the only customers and it was too quiet, and because the beer selection was lacking. It was fun, but drinking our own Colorado beer at the picnic table looking at the beautiful scenery by our trailer was way better.

Badlands National Park

Badlands is wild and windy and totally gorgeous. The park is long and narrow and didn’t offer any hiking options that fit our requirements (being a National Park, it’s not dog-friendly; the short hikes were very short and the longer hikes were too long for our dog-care schedule) so we drove the scenic drive, stopping at many of the overlooks and running around taking pictures. We would have loved to have been able to go for a long hike into the interior of the crazy little rainbow sherbetty humps and peaks. Next time!

Wall Drug

The scenic drive through the park dumps you near Wall, SD, home of Wall Drug, America’s favorite roadside attraction (according to them). Have you heard of it? Apparently, there are over 3,000 “How Many Miles to Wall Drug?” signs around the world, and we’d seen our fair share driving around out West. We felt compelled to check it out, and didn’t really get it. It’s basically a giant shopping center full of people and selling crap. What did we miss? Glad we didn’t go out of the way to see it!