First visit: June 1987 (June 1994 for 50 by 30)
Most of South Dakota is terribly flat and boring. Driving the state from east to west, the road seems to have no curves and the scenery never changes (except for the few miles of lush green that straddle the Missouri River). At the western end of the state, things change. The Black Hills rise above the surface and spectacular caves are found below it. Here, in Badlands National Park erosion has changed the plain into a desolate moonscape. At sunset the formations appear almost ghostly.
