Palisades State Park

After leaving the Badands, (and hitting up Wall Drug on our way out) we headed east for a short stay in Palisades State Park. It was our first taste of home, right on the edge of the Midwest. We camped amid deciduous trees and enjoyed cool evenings and warm campfires. Palisades State Park is situated along Split Rock Creek in South Eastern South Dakota.

These exposed rock cliffs are made up of pink Sioux Quartzite. This stone has deposits of soft catlinite used by Native tribes for carving sacred pipes. There are some great trails amid the beautiful sheer pink cliffs lining the water, some 50 feet high (of which we only have sub par phone pics). Really fun to explore and climb around.

We gave Hodor a little hand-lettered flair. Upon leaving an RV park in Washington, the furthest we had been from home, this was the parting word from the park owner, a good mantra we've adopted.

Scavenged some firewood leftover from weekend campers

And hung out with Bowie (this is the view looking up from the couch, Bowie sitting on our bed over the cab).

It was really nice camping, we enjoyed the trees, campfires, bike rides, and just took it real slow in preparation for the last stretch towards home. We already felt so close, no more deserts or mountains on the horizon.

-Cori