Little Tent on the Prairie

National Grasslands

Prairie Sandpiper

Tonight, Thursday night, is our 6th day on the road.  We're camping  in the middle of miles of grass and range land that are part of the in the Fort Pierre National Grasslands. Nothing but sky and rolling range land as far as we can see. The National Grasslands are, like the National Forests, managed by the USDA for the use and enjoyment of all. One of those uses is the right of anyone to camp within the Grassland, where ever they want. We were a little skeptical of this so we'd gone to the Grasslands Office in Fort Pierre to double check. Sure enough, the Ranger assured us. He then helped us understand the vagaries of the road system, cautioned us against camping near any of the prairie dog towns, since there were usually rattle snakes there and it was also prairie dog hunting season. He then pointed out some great site possibilities. Right now, we along with some cows about 5 miles to the North East, are truly enjoying this area. It's like being in a huge green ocean with no other boats around for miles.

Prior to setting up camp, we'd already had a long and eventful day. Early this morning we woke up in Sioux Falls, visited the headquarters of Dakota Post, our new "home" and mail forwarding agent, acquired our new South Dakota drivers licenses, and registered to vote. All before 9:00am.

55 minutes and 67 miles later (the speed limit in South Dakota is 80 mph), we exited I-90 to see the world famous Corn Palace. When that turned out to be a building sided in murals made of corn we jumped back in the car and made our first ever visit to Cabelas. After declining to check our guns at the door we shopped around for large pack towels, a water container and some socks amid all the ammo and fishing hook displays. Checking out, I felt a little out of place not having purchased something that would kill something else but was happy that we had also found a great set of high-sided dinner plates.

And then it was back on the road to see if what we'd read about being able to camp anywhere in the Grasslands was true. It was, and here we are!