We were up there last year. We headed up there from Kansas City now we peeled of I70 in Topeka and took back roads up and across Nebraska. We ended up on HWY 2 in NE and heading to 385. Well in Alliance NE saw a sign for Car Henge took the short side trip to it (couple miles). What a spot. Just like the worlds largest ball of twine had this huge setup of cars in the model of Stonehenge it was really kinda of cool and certainly made you wonder WHY? however it was neat. We were only there for 20 minutes but totally would have missed it via interstate made a nice rest stop for us to get out for a few. Once we got on 385 and into Chadron NE we hit the Fur Trapping Museum which I thought was way cool I was in there for a couple hours. Another miss had we gone a conventional route. From there hop skip and a jump to Custer. At least the back roads we took were all very good road made decent time. Shortly after getting off the interstate the towns got farther and farther apart so we made decent time on good roads.
We stayed in the Hot Springs area for a few days and hit the local sites Wind Cave, Rushmore, Crazy Horse etc before heading over to the Badlands from there up to Minute Man Missle Museum site (if by chance you go there and want to take the tour get there very early as they only allow like 30 people on the tour and it is once a day tickets are usually gone within an hour of opening. I had hoped to take the tour but we didnt roll in until around 1pm so we totally missed that but the site was still cool and on the way out up the freeway they have another site with a silo. You cant go in it but they have the lid off and covered with a dome so you could see down in it missile etc. Just out in the middle of some field, apparently there were thousands of similar sites across that part of the country. Then on to Wall Drug for a late lunch and from there we were headed up to North Dakota for the Teddy Roosevelt Badlands both North and South unit. Then circled back around to Devils Tower, and Deadwood then headed home to Denver. Took back roads almost the entire way except for a few short stretches of interstate.
I find traveling through Kansas and Nebraska or other mid western states not as boring as many do especially if you get off the interstate. The work those farmers do, the small towns, the sometimes odd attractions you run across etc. I cant do that type of traveling every trip for sure but when I do I find it enjoyable.
2016 Jayco 28.5 RLTS
