During General Sherman’s “march to the sea” in 1864, he dispatched troops under Brigadier General Samuel D. Sturgis to northern Mississippi to protect the 151-mile Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad line from Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Confederate cavalry. The two sides clashed on June 10 at this site in northern Mississippi, when a larger Union force of 8,100 men was routed by 3,500 Confederates. However, Sherman’s supply line remained intact during his march towards Atlanta.
The National Park Service site here is tiny with no facilities and only a couple interpretive signs, but a local battlefield commission owns 1,400 acres with walking trails. The nearby Mississippi Final Stands Interpretive Center is located five miles east of the battlefield in Baldwyn. For a passport stamp, stop at the Natchez Trace Parkway visitor center outside Tupelo. We arrived at Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site near sunset, but we were still able to explore the small park at the four-way stop at the crossroads of Highway 370.
Best Trail
A local battlefield commission owns 1,400 acres with miles of walking trails, with the longest located at Log Cabin Knoll.
Instagram-worthy Photo
A monument was erected where the Brice home once stood, used as a place to treat the wounded of both armies during the battle.
Explore More – Who was the Colonel that commanded several regiments of United States Colored Troops (USCT) instrumental in the defensive actions that protected the Union Army’s retreat across the Tishomingo River?
Start your trip near Sioux Falls, where pink formations of quartzite rock rise above muddy Split Rock Creek below. It is a great spot for a picnic, and you might get to watch rock climbers across the creek repelling down the steep cliffs.
Not only is Sioux Falls the largest city in the state, it is also home to Falls Park where the Big Sioux River tumbles down 100 feet of rosy quartzite in a series of photogenic cascades.
Not far off Interstate 90 in Mitchell is a great wonder of human creativity dating back to 1892. Each year a new theme is chosen by artists who design images to decorate the outside of the building completely with organic materials. By the end of the summer, the face of this unique building is covered with 275,000 ears of corn in a variety of colors. Be sure to go inside the building to see pictures of past palaces, turn a millstone to grind our own cornmeal, and learn fun facts.
Dignity sculpture
Also on Interstate 90, there is a new 50-foot sculpture of a Native American woman wearing a traditional star quilt entitled Dignity of Earth and Sky.
Visit inside the capitol to learn why the tiny town of Pierre (pronounced “peer”) was chosen as the state’s capital city in 1889 and how the building was constructed starting in 1905.
Look online for the publication South Dakota Fishing Guide to the National Grasslands, which provides information on 41 fishing ponds in the National Grassland. Originally built in 1934, Richland Dam was renovated in 2014 and now features handicapped-accessible fishing and a concrete boat ramp. Fishing ponds are generally open December 1 to August 31 to avoid overlap with hunting season.
Beyond the geologic formations and hiking trails, this is a good place to camp at the developed Cedar Pass Campground, free Sage Creek Primitive Campground (which can be crowded in the summer), or backpacking out with the bison. Bighorn sheep are also common, and porcupines, surprising for as treeless as it is. Prairie dog towns make for an endless variety of entertainment and provide habitat for burrowing owls, prairie rattlesnakes, and endangered black-footed ferrets that have been reintroduced throughout South Dakota.
Outside Badlands National Park on Interstate 90, a small museum and ranger-guided tours of the Delta-01 launch control facility. Tours have very limited space and a nominal fee, but are no longer solely first-come-first served thanks to an online reservation system.
Perhaps the greatest roadside attraction in the entire world, famous since 1936 for its “Free Ice Water” road signs. Today Interstate 90 is inundated with Wall Drug billboards for miles in each direction. Ice water is still free and the café still offers a cup of coffee for only five cents, as well as the best soft-serve ice cream we have ever tasted. In the Wall Drug Backyard, you can even ride atop a ten-foot-tall jackalope; and do not leave without a free bumper sticker.
This serves as the main interpretive site for all 20 National Grasslands (plus Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie). The exhibit hall is still under reconstruction following a flood that forced a relocation into a temporary trailer for years, but the theater is reopened showing a short film.
Admission is free to this museum (currently closed for construction) seven miles east of Rapid City on Interstate 90. It sits next to Ellsworth Air Force Base, but you do not have to pass through military security to enter. An impressive B-1B Lancer sits out front alongside other historic aircraft, with many more located inside the hangars.
This icon of South Dakota is inspiring to see during the day, but for the full patriotic effect do not miss the night lighting ceremony offered May to September.
Needles Highway
The 14-mile-long Needles Highway was completed in 1922 and is known for its narrow, one-lane tunnels that run straight through mountainsides and the natural arch aptly named the Needle’s Eye (Custer State Park admission required). Trails leave from along its length to access the Cathedral Spires, Black Elk Peak, Sylvan Lake, and Little Devil’s Tower. To the northeast, the Highway 16A section of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Highway utilizes more one-lane tunnels and fascinating corkscrew turns called “pigtail bridges” to connect Custer State Park with Mount Rushmore National Memorial (no admission fee required when simply driving through).
Under construction since 1948, this privately-funded monument continues to be carved and blasted to this day. In addition to the 563-foot-tall memorial to the legendary fighter and leader of the Oglala Lakota, the site also has the Indian Museum of North America full of outstanding artwork and artifacts. Special tours can be booked up to the 87-foot-tall head of Crazy Horse, plus, a laser-light show runs nightly in the summer. There is a pretty good view from the highway if you do not want to pay the admission fee.
World famous for its Buffalo Roundup every September, this park has so much more than bison (see Needles Highway above). Visitors can see bighorn sheep, mountain goats, pronghorn, elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, coyotes, turkeys, golden eagles, and you might even get nose-to-nose with one of the feral burros that roam free and love handouts. You may find yourself stuck waiting out a “bison jam” as the large ungulates cross a road.
The interior of Wind Cave is a constant 53°F, so bring a jacket if you sign up for the Natural Entrance Tour, which involves entering a vapor lock revolving door and descending stairs. On the Candlelight Tour you carry lightweight metal candle-lanterns, just like 19th-century tourists. It is only offered in the summer and explores an unlit section of the cave. There are several good trails that traverse the prairie and canyons and we enjoy backpacking (free permit required) on Highland Creek Trail where we always see bison.
Surrounding Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore and spilling into the state of Wyoming, it is home to a fun hike to the state’s high point at 7,242-foot tall Black Elk (formerly Harney) Peak rising in the center of the beautiful Black Elk Wilderness. We also recommend Old Baldy Trail and Buzzards Roost Trail.
Currently, Jewel Cave ranks third worldwide with over 160 miles in mapped passages, and based on air flow estimates the cave is less than 10% mapped. The namesake jewels are actually boxy calcite formations, which crystalized out of water in a manner similar to the way a bathtub ring forms. The Wild Caving Tour and Lantern Tour are our favorite ranger-guided tour options.
The only developed site of this sprawling area is located at French Creek Agate Beds, where there is a campground and rockhounding is legal for Fairburn agate (the official State Gem of South Dakota), rose quartz, and banded jasper.
This flat trail runs 109 miles from Deadwood to Edgemont along the former Burlington Northern rail line, but you can choose to hike as far as you like (day-use fee). Like many rails-to-trails projects, this route is wide enough to accommodate bikes and includes many bridges and tunnels, like those near the Mystic Trailhead.
A scenic byway follows Highway 14A south of Interstate 90 past roadside Bridal Veil Falls and Spearfish Falls. The limestone cliffs of the canyon are sprinkled with ponderosa pine trees and the creek is lined by deciduous trees that add to the beauty when changing colors in late-September (around Buffalo Roundup weekend). It is free to park at 30-foot-tall Roughlock Falls (pictured below), but this small park can get congested.
Belle Fourche is home to a 21-foot-wide monument with a visitor center and museum at the site designated by the National Geodetic Survey as the center of the 50 states after Alaska and Hawai‘i were added in 1959.
A free park filled with locally gathered petrified wood and other geological specimens. The “world’s largest collection” also has a free museum constructed out of petrified wood that is open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
In southeast South Dakota, the river’s lower segment runs 59 miles from the Gavins Point Dam to Ponca State Park, plus a 39-mile stretch was added from the Fort Randall Dam to Niobrara State Park, and includes 20 miles of the Lower Niobrara River (which is itself designated a National Scenic River upstream in Nebraska).
Added to the National Park Service (NPS) system on February 15, 2024, Amache National Historic Site is the fifth unit dedicated to remembering the sad story of the forced internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. Operated between 1942 and 1945, at its peak the Granada Relocation Center in southeast Colorado housed 7,310 incarcerees making it the state’s tenth largest city at the time. Although it does not have a visitor center, the site of the internment camp is more developed than other new NPS sites since it was previously added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and then designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Learn more about the history of these camps by checking out the Related Sites below and watching some of our Top 10 World War II Films or reading one of the Top 10 World War Novels.
Highlights
Amache Museum, water tower, barracks, guard tower, cemetery, Recreation Hall
Must-Do Activity
Start at the excellent Amache Museum in Granada, which is run by local high school students and has free admission (donations accepted). Be sure to pick up a map of the driving tour or visit the website (https://amache.org/driving-tour-map-podcasts) to listen to the audio recordings at each stop (there is smartphone coverage on site). Drive the route in order or skip around, but make it a point to see Stop 4 (guard tower and barracks), Stop 8 (cemetery), and the Rec Hall. Starting in June 2025, ranger-led tours will be offered at 10 a.m. on the first and third Friday of the summer months.
Best Trail
There is a short loop trail with many interpretive signs at the picnic area when you first arrive at the site by the Honor Roll square structure. There is also an off-trail walk to the old koi pond at Stop 2 that you can navigate if you listen to the directions on the audio recordings.
Photographic Opportunity
The reconstructed barracks and guard tower at the south end of the site are two of the only structures standing above the open prairie. They are near the water tower, which is worth a short detour to see.
Explore More – Most of the 10,000 acres dedicated to Granada Relocation Center was for agriculture, so how many acres were used for residential and administrative buildings?
Buffalo Gap is the second-largest National Grassland and it surrounds Badlands National Park and Minuteman Missile National Historic Site east of Black Hills National Forest. The town of Wall, South Dakota is home to the National Grasslands Visitor Center, which serves as the main interpretive site for all 20 National Grasslands (plus Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie). The exhibit hall is still under reconstruction following a flood that forced a relocation into a temporary trailer for years, but the theater is reopened showing a short film. This is a good spot to pick up a map and buy some hard-to-find National Grassland merchandise.
Highlights
National Grasslands Visitor Center, French Creek Agate Beds
Must-Do Activity
After starting your visit at the National Grasslands Visitor Center in Wall (and making a required visit to Wall Drug—America’s best roadside attraction), head south through Buffalo Gap National Grassland towards the entrance booth for Badlands National Park (see Photographic Opportunity). The only developed site is much further west at French Creek Agate Beds, where there is a campground and rockhounding is legal for Fairburn agate (the official State Gem of South Dakota), rose quartz, and banded jasper. The collection and duplication of vertebrate fossils requires a permit and no commercial gathering of fossils is allowed, except for petrified wood.
Best Trail
Right to the southeast of the Wyoming border on Highway 18 is a section of Buffalo Gap National Grassland where we did some off-trail hiking along a waterway. Conata Basin south of Badlands National Park is also a good option for prairie exploration.
Watchable Wildlife
Buffalo Gap National Grassland contains grazing allotments for cattle and domesticated bison herds, as well as wild herds of white-tailed deer and pronghorn. In 2003, 151 black-footed ferret kits were reintroduced and placed in coyote-free areas, but these nocturnal predators only spend a few minutes above ground each day. Swift fox and bighorn sheep have also been reintroduced in neighboring Badlands National Park. Watch in prairie dog towns for burrowing owls and prairie rattlesnakes, as well as northern harriers, prairie falcons, golden eagles, and other raptors.
Photographic Opportunity
There are free designated campsites along the popular Nomad Vw S Road just north of the Pinnacles Entrance to Badlands National Park, which offer great views from the cliffs above the striped geologic formations.
Peak Season
Summer
Fees
None
Road Conditions
The bentonite clay soils can make the unpaved roads impassable to passenger vehicles when muddy. There is also a deep stream crossing to access the French Creek Agate Beds that would require high clearance when there is water present.
Camping
Unlike most National Grasslands, this one has a developed campground at French Creek (fee required) with vault toilets, fire grates, and picnic tables, but no potable water. It is free to camp in designated sites along the busy Nomad Vw S Road just north of the Pinnacles Entrance to Badlands National Park.
River crossing at French Creek Agate BedsScott making the river crossing at French Creek Agate BedsTiff rock hounding at French Creek Agate BedsWyoming border and National Grassland border
Explore More – What is the status of 48,000 acres of the National Grassland set to be designated as Wilderness in a 2010 bill sponsored by South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson?
Last year we published our guidebook 50 States of Great: Road Trip Guide to America, so we decided to start a new type of blog post where we create a travel itinerary for all 50 states, in addition to our usual National Forest and National Park entries. After starting by jumping around to Kansas, Georgia, Idaho, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Hawai’i, and Arizona, we headed back to the south for Louisiana. Just in time for Mardi Gras, we made an ambitious seven-day plan starting in New Orleans, with plenty of options to extend the trip.
Eating beignets is a great way to start your trip to Louisiana, and this is the most touristy place to get them, located on the Riverwalk in New Orleans.
It is easy to spend an entire day here (fee) because of all the interactive exhibits and informational touchscreen kiosks. You do not even have to leave for lunch, since the Soda Shop and American Sector Restaurant & Bar are on site. We recommend you purchase a ticket including the 4-D film Beyond All Boundaries and the submarine experience based on the final mission of the USS Tang. This is our vote for #1 museum in the entire U.S.
French Quarter
Every American needs to visit the French Quarter at least once in their life (although whether that’s during the wildness of Mardi Gras is up to you), and it is walkable from the National WWII Museum. Consider stopping by iconic Lafayette Square, Old Ursuline Convent Museum, or the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum.
Ghost Tour
We have heard rave reviews about the ghost tours offered in New Orleans, and hope to attend one someday to compare it to the others we have done.
We camped here and it felt like we were off in the wild while still within the city’s suburbs.
Day 2
New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
The New Orleans Jazz Museum (fee) is located in the old U.S. mint building right in the heart of the historic French Quarter. Check the online schedule for musical performances put on by the National Park Service (NPS) and enter the free visitor center shared with Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve.
Go out to lunch in New Orleans
Louisiana is famous for its Cajun food, including gumbo, étouffée, jambalaya, po’boys, and red beans and rice.
Make sure you visit the 24,000-acre Barataria Preserve to experience the bayous of Louisiana, whether you hike or take a boat tour (fee). South of downtown New Orleans off Highway 45, keep your feet dry by hiking the boardwalks on the Bayou Coquille Trail. In addition, this park includes three Acadian Cultural Centers spread throughout southwestern Louisiana.
Optional stop at Chalmette Battlefield
Another part of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve encompasses the land where Andrew Jackson led the defeat of the British to retain New Orleans for the U.S. after the end of the War of 1812.
Day 3
Baton Rouge
Check out the art-deco capitol building where you might see white pelicans floating on the lake next door. We read that the pelican on the state flag is supposed to be a brown pelican (the official state bird) even though the artist made it white so it stood out against the blue background. Also consider visiting the Old State Capitol, Old Governor’s Mansion, or USS Kidd destroyer ship.
Optional drive along the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway
Not the most direct route between New Orleans and the capital city, this 23.8-mile causeway is considered the longest continuous bridge over water in the world. It is free to drive northbound, but don’t attempt it when it’s smoky or foggy, as it becomes very dangerous to drive.
Optional stop at LSU Tigers game
Louisiana State University is located in Baton Rouge and they are famous for their tailgating scene and raucous fans who support their perennially excellent football, women’s basketball, and gymnastics teams.
Northwest of Baton Rouge, the largest of all baldcypress trees in the U.S. is found at the end of a flat, half-mile trail, where there is a new boardwalk built around the tree to protect its roots. This area is located down six miles of dirt road full of potholes (and is sometimes flooded).
Louisiana is home to 24 National Wildlife Refuges, many found in its southern half where bayous are full of alligators and mostly uninhabited by humans, like this one west of Baton Rouge.
In southwest Louisiana, this route traverses 180 miles of pavement around Calcasieu Lake and the Gulf of Mexico coastline. Much of the state’s oceanfront is inaccessible swamp, but in this corner of the state there are 26 miles of beautiful sandy beaches where ocean waves and seashells await. Consider spending the night in Holly Beach.
Further inland, there are 700,000 acres of wetlands that attract waterfowl to Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, while the surrounding area is used by farmers to grow rice and raise crawfish.
There are eight parcels that constitute the sprawling 603,360-acre Kisatchie National Forest, which has over 40 developed recreation sites and 100 miles of trails. It encompasses lakes for boating and swimming, plus baldcypress-lined bayous for canoeing and fishing. Old-growth longleaf pine forests can be accessed by the paved Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway, just off Interstate 49. A 1.5-mile interpretive loop at Longleaf Vista is a good place to start.
Red Dirt National Wildlife Management Preserve
Camping is allowed in this area next to the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness where you can backpack along trails. Kisatchie National Forest also offers several lakefront camping areas elsewhere. Lake Fausse Pointe, Lake Bistineau, and Chicot State Parks all have campgrounds with lake access, as well cabins available for rent.
The Creole Nature Trail Adventure Point is a self-guided audio tour and starts off Interstate 10 in Sulphur, where a museum has hands-on displays that introduce visitors to local wildlife and Cajun culture.
Settled 3,700 years ago by hunter-gatherers, this ancient city with a population estimated at 1,500 was situated along Bayou Macon in northeast Louisiana. The inhabitants constructed several mounds, the most impressive is 72-feet-tall in the shape of a bird, which required approximately 15-million basket-loads of soil to complete.
Oakland Plantation survived the Civil War intact, but in the wake of Reconstruction tenant farming created a new form of indentured servitude. Self-guided tours of the site take you through the mule barn, several cottages, and an old general store that still looks open for business along Highway 494. Slave/tenant quarters are also preserved at Magnolia Plantation downstream, but the main house is closed to the public.
Festivals dedicated to celebrating and eating frogs and crawfish; it does not get any more Louisiana than that! Also, consider arriving during one of the many music festivals dedicated to jazz, zydeco, or other regional musical styles.
An annual battle reenactment takes place at the site of a siege during the Civil War; further north, another Civil War reenactment is held at Pleasant Hill.
This forested Wildlife Management Area is located between Monroe and Alexandria in central Louisiana. It includes Rock Falls, which at 17 feet in height is the tallest waterfall in the state, accessible on a seven-mile trail.
Raven About The Parks 