Day 5 - Badlands, SD

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We started our day in Albert Lea, MN and our ending it in a cozy cabin in Badlands. The cool morning clouds dissolved by mid-day, turning into a warm dry haze. It was in the low 80s on the road and climbed to 88 degrees in Badlands. We were on the road for about 8.5 hours arriving around 4pm, which was 5pm in the timezone we started the day in.

We officially hit the prairie lands today where corn fields made way for grasslands spotted with cows. Strangely, the cows all huddle together tightly despite there being a vast prairie around them. Visual highlights were the Missouri river and a new flowering plant dappling the landscape a lime green.

We ended our day with a gorgeous sunset hike that we started at 7pm. Despite the time, it was still quite warm and the sun still fairly high in the sky. Hard to believe it was going to set in an hour and a half.

I had no expectations of what Badlands might be like and was not at all disappointed. Like most awe inspiring places, photos don't do it justice. You just have to experience it for yourself.


One thing the photos don't show is how quiet people are here. The rocks seem to cast a spell that makes you want to whisper or not talk at all so you can take it all in.

Tomorrow it will reach a high of 97 in Badlands so we will start our day early. Since I am not a morning person I am grateful for all the time changes working in my favor. After meandering through the park we will end our day in Spearfish, MT.

Tristan's thoughts on time zones

While driving from Somerville to Seattle we'll cover just over 3,000 miles, mostly due west. We're going to be around 40 to 45 degrees north, which means the circumference of the Earth east to west here is roughly 19,000 miles. So on this trip out we're traveling about 15% of the way around the Earth.

About every 800 miles or so we cover 4% of the circumference of the Earth, which means that the sun rises and sets about 1 hour later. And right on track we crossed over from Eastern to Central timezone on our second day, just before getting into Illinois, after driving for almost 900 miles.

Today we went through Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which was almost exactly the halfway point of our trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At that point we were about 1,500 miles from each ocean. And then later we crossed over in to Mountain time, just before getting to Badlands National Park, where we're spending the night tonight. Badlands is about 1,800 miles from home, or over 9% of the Earth's circumference, covered in the last five days.

Next week we're spending a few days in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, and then we'll be in the Pacific time zone after crossing Montana. By the time we're at Olympic National Park the sun will be rising and setting about 16%, or 4 hours, later than when we left home. We'll only be 3 time zones different though because the end of our last time zone is actually a few hundred miles off shore. I looked it up and the next time zone is the "Alaska" time zone, but look at it on a map, that's ridiculous.

States traveled

  • Minnesota
  • South Dakota

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Halfway

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