Travel Reference
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ber up and down the crumbly buttes and sawtooth ridges. Higher still, cliff swallows and
white-throated swifts flit to and from their nests among the park's loftiest, least accessible
perches, while every so often a golden eagle plunges earthward to seize its prey.
3.
Sage Creek Rim Road
Several overlooks—13 in all—along Rte. 240 provide rich opportunities to view the Bad-
lands wildlife and landscape. About 22 miles beyond the visitor center, the highway veers
sharplynorth,butthedrive,tradingblacktopforgravel,continueswestonSageCreekRim
Road.
Immediately you enter the Sage Creek Wilderness Area, a 64,250-acre subsection of
Badlands National Park. Hikers who venture off the highway into the grassy lowlands will
findnotrails toguide them, save those wornbythe tread ofbison. Some five miles west of
the turn onto Sage Creek Rim Road, look for Roberts Prairie Dog Town, an underground
communityfortheendearingrodentshousinghundredsoftheBadlands'mostsociableand
industrious inhabitants.
4.
Buffalo Gap National Grassland
Where the gravel ends at the town of Scenic, the drive turns onto Rte. 44 and heads north-
westward across a sprawling sea of mixed prairie grasses. Early in the 20th century, set-
tlers by the thousands flocked to this part of the plains to become ranchers, only to see
their hopes dashed either by drought or by the Great Depression, when homestead after
homestead was abandoned.
Today Buffalo Gap—one of three national grasslands in South Dakota—embraces
more than a half-million acres of grassland restored to its original lushness. Though it may
be tempting to rush through this wide, wind-blown expanse, slow down to savor one of
North America's most striking landscapes.
5.
Rapid City
Today it's the state's second-largest population center, but Rapid City nearly disappeared
before it had even begun. The city planners, who founded the town in 1876 as a supply de-
pot for the Hills' prosperous goldfields, were dismayed to discover that the lure of mineral
riches, a few miles farther on, was so great that no one wanted to stop there. Luckily, res-
idents soon persuaded the railroad to build a line through town.
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