USA Trip.....The road to Badlands National Park

We had spent a lot of hours researching our road trip; maps, distances, travel times, national parks, YouTube videos, Trip Advisor, the weather and most importantly our love of mountains, hiking, nature and the chance to see wildlife in their natural habitat.

Badlands National Park was on our list almost immediately. We had an idea of what to expect when we arrived, the unusual beauty and 'out of this world' landscape was far beyond our expectations.

Our Badlands adventure started early in the day, still suffering from jet lag - we only arrived in the US approximately 36 hours earlier - we woke up around 5:30am. We'd had a long drive the day before, the weather was terrible.

Let's go back 15 hours to where our adventure could easily have been over before it began!

Before starting the drive to Badlands, we visited our nephew in Mayer. This is where a series of events began, that ultimately, we were grateful for. Not that this was our first thought when we arrived at 1:30am with only the RV headlights for any form of light, 22 hours after waking up.

We had a lovely family visit, where we had arranged to collect our National Park Pass. We had been warned of a tornado watch, so we were keen to hit the road. As you might have already guessed, we forgot the park pass. We were both annoyed with ourselves to receive the phone call telling us the pass was still on the kitchen counter. We had no option but to turn around and go back. Park pass in hand, we set off again to Badlands.

Gale force winds, torrential rain, hail, a very moody sky and thunder and lighting were not the conditions we wanted! But, and it's a BIG but, this weather was much better than what it would have been if we didn't have to go back.

You guessed it! The tornado did touch down, on the route we were taking, on the road we would have been on at the exact time we would have been there if we didn't have to go back. Our excitement and forgetfulness quite possibly saved our road trip.

If you're interested to read more about what we were lucky to miss, here is a time line of the storm from MPR News - we take no credit for this article.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/04/28/minnesota-weather-severe-thunderstorms-tornado-hail-damage

Once the storm had passed, the drive was smooth. Open roads, with barely any other vehicles on the road. The drive felt a lot longer than it should have, thanks to the jetlag! The clear blue sky, with barely a cloud in sight made the drive a lot more enjoyable.

We made a few stops to stretch our legs, we have to say the rest stops were immaculate. Clean, plenty of toilets, information points and a good selection in the vending machine; all reasonably priced. They were nothing like the UK services. Complete with covered areas, picnic benches and even the odd BBQ. They had everything you could want at a rest stop.

With the journey over we parked up, hoped for a stunning view the following morning and went to bed.

We have to say, the view in the morning was more than we had hoped for.

Next up, a day in Badlands National Park......