Rapid City, SD To Wall, SD

July 19, 2010
55 miles

It was a little hard to get motivated after having two rest days in Rapid City. We set out in a group leaving the hotel but got off course in the city. After a few wrong turns we were back on a frontage road that paralleled I90 for about 25 miles.


We stopped at a convenience store in New Underwood and saw a group of fully loaded cyclists traveling to Iowa. Our route directions indicated at this point to get on the freeway but most of us continued on the frontage road.

First stop at New Underwood


Biker Bar?



After about 15 miles more on the frontage road Ed and I got onto the freeway because we knew the lunch stop was coming up in a rest area. However, there wasn't an on-ramp so we used the long off-ramp to get back on the freeway. Others got on a few miles farther.

A few miles before Wall, in the Cheyenne River Basin we noticed millions of grasshoppers all over the place. They flew into our spokes and hit our bodies. I could hear my tires every now and then crushing grasshoppers that were sitting on the road.

I had a quick bite to eat at the lunch stop and it was getting hot so Ed and I got back on our bikes and rode the last 11 miles to Wall, a tourist trap type of town.

Lunch stop at rest area


In the Cheyenne river basin


We saw millions of these grasshoppers everywhere when we got close to our lunch stop


Riding out of the Cheyenne River basin. Ed in the distance


After we got checked into our rooms and showered at Anne's Hotel we walked over to Wall Drug. About 1/2 hour later I reached my limit of this place. It was filled with shops with all sorts of cheap souvenirs. Ed, Sharon, Kim and I walked to Red Rock Cafe and got a bite to eat. As we were eating a major thunder shower rolled through. It poured heavily for about 20 minutes. Several ditches were overflowing with water.

Tacky Wall Drug