Day 49: Rapid City, SD to Interior, SD

July 18, 2023

73 miles

1,744 miles so far

We got an early start today hitting the road by 6:30am, as we had a long ride ahead of us. Our route today would ultimately take us to a bunkhouse on Circle View Guest Ranch a few miles west of Interior and just outside the entrance to the Badlands National Park. Heading out of Rapid City we were able to ride a very nice bike path that followed Rapid Creek and led us to HW44 which we would follow all the way to our destination for the day.

With a bit of a tailwind, it was a very nice ride on HW44. While there were some rolling hills, the elevation was generally descending.

We had planned to stop in the town of Scenic, as it was the only place to potentially resupply along our route. When we arrived we were surprised to discover that the gas station store was now permanently closed. We met two men on motorcycles there who told us it had been open last year when they stopped. They had traveled from Naples, FL on their fourteenth annual motorcycle trip out west. One of them was from Fairfax, VA and had moved to Florida in 1998, the same year we did.

He directed us to the only other establishment in “town” which appeared to still be open - the Tatanka Trading Post. We stopped in to buy some water and learned from the woman working there that she would be shutting it down after this summer. From what I read online about Scenic, it is essentially a ghost town which was abandoned over a century ago - more of a curiosity than an actual town were we might find some needed amenities! Instead we found the remains of a jail, a church, a saloon and a few other buildings, but thank goodness for the Tatanka Trading Post.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, a group of about twenty motorcycles rolled in, and we could hear one of the men, who appeared to be a tour guide of sorts, beginning to tell them something about the history of Scenic.

As we rode through the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and the Badlands National Park, the scenery was stunning. It was my first time seeing the Badlands - I’ll let the photos speak for themselves!

When we finally arrived at our turnoff for the ranch, we had to ride about a mile or so of gravel road and then a steep ascent to the top of a mesa to reach our home for the night. The reward for battling the onslaught of mosquitoes and the trek up the steep gravel “driveway” was an incredible view of the ranch and river below and the surrounding Badlands.

Tomorrow we will ride through the Badlands and begin our eastward journey into the prairies.

Entering the Badlands