On a little bit of a whim, I decided to take a backpacking/camping trip somewhere in the United States.  I knew that I wanted to camp somewhere and do some hiking, but I did not have a specific place in mind.  So I researched a few places and made a list of possibilities.  Trying to narrow the list down was harder than I thought.  It included national parks, state parks, and national forests.  Each had pluses and minus.  National parks are large and well documented and when the map says there will be a campsite in a place, it will be there.  State parks range in size and are generally set up more for day trips than ongoing overnight adventures.  National forests are less restrictive in what you can do.  For example, you can hunt, bring pets on trails, and sometimes bring a motorcycle through a National Forest.

I came up with eight possible states to visit. To the east: Tennessee, North Carolina, Virgina, and Kentucky.  To the west: Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  Each presented very different situations, but the goal was the same for every one of them: arrive, park, register, hike, camp, hike, camp, hike, leave.  Two nights spent out under the stars with no one else around for miles.

To decide where I would end up I started by flipping a coin to decide east or west.  Heads = east and tails = west.  West won so I got on I70 and headed to Kansas City where I’d make my next decision.  The coin sent me north, which pretty much eliminated Colorado. When I got to the Nebraska City area I flipped again, resulting in a change of course – west across Nebraska.  At that point I could really only make South Dakota or Wyoming before I would be exhausted from driving.  I was trying not to spend the entire night driving since I was going to be hiking the next day, wherever I ended up.  So at Grand Island, Nebraska I flipped for the last time that day.  Heads to turn right and head to South Dakota, tails would send me on to Wyoming.  After three straight tails, heads came up and I turned onto Nebraska Highway 2 to make my way to South Dakota.  To be honest I was a little disappointed.  When I was looking up places to go, Wyoming looked the most “untouched” and I was thrilled to go there.  Luckily, The Badlands did not disappoint.

I pulled into Kadoka, SD around 10pm. I found a place to camp for the night and tried to get some sleep.  I didnt sleep well that night. Some of it was the storm that came through around 2am that night, but most of it was how excited I was to start tomorrow.  I was like a kid on Christmas knowing there were presents under the tree, but waiting on his parents to tell him it was ok to come out of his room.  Only in this case, the parents were that pesky sun – which didnt seem to rise no matter how many times I closed my eyes.  And the presents under the tree?  The untouched beauty of the South Dakota backcountry and the freedom from all of today’s fast paced world.