Road trip From Missouri to South Dakota: Photography

It was summer 2022 and we had a full two day weekend at our disposal, so we began the undertaking travel to south Dakota, to Mt. Rushmore for the first time, along stops at the famous worlds only corn palace in Mitchell South Dakota and rapid city just for fun.

Not to mention a trek through the infamous bad lands national park, on a 95 degree day, where the sun scorched equally from the sky above, and reflected off of the rocks below, and we had the time of our lives, and I took some of my favorite photos to date, which you will see below.

The bad lands were a photographers dream, as well as this ones first time seeing mountains not belonging to the Ozarks, so I was quick to go off the trail, and climb to sketchy peaks (to the dismay of my girlfriend) to get my shot just right.

Below I will include some of those photos. All taken with my trusty canon 800D with the classic wide angle EF 16-35 F/4 lens, which did these gorgeous places justice.

Below you will see the photo that had my girlfriend worried, as to take it, I scaled a peak of about 300 feet complete with a long steep and dusty trail, that I am not sure was made by humans, that had your feet constantly slipping due to the dust. I mounted my tripod and did a near split between two rocks to get this beautiful image of the view of the road with mountains in the background. Having a tripod with all 3 adjustable legs and some creativity was a must here! Each leg had to be on a different rock at a different Hight!

For the next photo, same place, but I turned the camera to face the impressive mountain (or tall hill? you decide) that I had crawled half way up to get this beautiful views of this natural wonder.

This following photo inspired some thought. This is earlier in our day when we had gone into the center of the badlands, which is probably hundreds of miles of rocky cliffs and canyons jutting out from every angle at varying heights. After taking this photo and staring into the distance, I could almost feel what it must have been like for the settlers, to cross through all the flat and prairie dog ridden grass lands, and to come up over a beautiful hill and see this as far as the eye can see. The landscape changed so fast. This reminded me where these lands got their name. Hard traveling for a horse and a buggy.

Next we have the biggest drop I have ever been at the edge of. I tossed a rock counting the seconds until it hit the ground, it was nearly 6, making it a near 600ft drop. With an almost too perfect ledge leading right to it, perfect for a photo. Strange and wonderful place.

Unfortunately we asked, and there was no drone photography allowed within the national park, or MT Rushmore, which was sad as I had just gotten my license and was fiending to get some aerial shots of these beautiful natural wonders!

Next we have some images of our stop in rapid city, in which we enjoyed seeing the 80 year old cement dinosaur park at! It also just so happened to be at one of the higher points of rapid city, and with a rapidly approaching sunset I found inspiration in a tree with big roots defiantly existing atop a large rock.

My girlfriend and I sat and watched the sun set while we decided what local restaurant we should try, the towering Dino's at our back, looking over the city as they have since the 30's!

The following day we drove up winding mountain roads, and achieved my highest elevation I've ever survived to tell the tale of, 5,000ft above sea level! Not to mention stopped at an amazing bakery and café on the way down the mountain, to grab a much needed coffee and human head sized cinnamon role for the arduous 12 hour drive back, to be on time for work Monday morning!

This was a truly beautiful trip, and seeing my first mountains, the bad lands, the corn palace, wall-drug, prairie dogs, and bison, all within 2 days in my tiny hatchback with my camera and my girlfriend, is a weekend I will never forget!