Things to Do in and Around Sioux Falls South Dakota…

Leaving the Badlands National Park we headed for a little R&R, (rest and relaxation). We drove over to central South Dakota to a Corps of Engineer Park called Left Trailrace where we stayed two nights. Its a bit off the beaten path as its about a 15-20 minute drive north off of Interstate 90 up the Missouri River Valley onto the Crow Creek Indian Reservation.

It had nice large campsites near the Lake Francis Case in a quiet and very scenic part of South Dakota. Here we simply walked a lot, rested a lot and played a little disc golf. We also used this slowdown to start planning our route further east. There has been no solid plans as we always keep our eyes on the weather when we are in the Midwest and have many alternative plans should the weather turn bad within our path.

We left Fort Thompson SD and drove the rest of the way east on Interstate 90 until we arrived at the Grand Falls Casino RV Resort in Larchwood, IA.  Once the park was within sight our GPS said welcome to Iowa but as we turned into the RV park it said welcome to South Dakota so while the Casino is in Iowa we are still in SD. Funny…

We chose this location in order to check out South Dakota’s largest city, Sioux Falls and our first stop was to visit the park where the town earned its namesake from, Falls Park. There had been a lot of recent rain so the falls were in full force. What a show they put on… There were also some trails in Falls Park winding by some historical mill remains which we also enjoyed.

We needed to do some grocery shopping but as we were shopping we noticed a bunch of tents up in a park. After searching the web we discovered it was the annual Jazz fest and better yet it was free to enter and free to park!!! So we spent the rest of the day chilling in the park and listening to a lot of eclectic (though not jazz) music. What luck we had on this day!

The next day we chose to do a walk to see the sculptures in downtown Sioux Falls SD. Wow, lots and lots of cool sculptures could be found by wandering around the main street in Sioux Falls. There were ballots to vote for the “people’s choice” award and the one that won was not the one I would have picked but it was pretty cool as well. What a beautiful downtown area which was alive and energetic.

That afternoon we headed over to a park to play some Disc Golf. Man it was crowded as there was a tournament also going on. When we talked with some of the participants they told us we could go ahead and play as the tournament couldn’t actually take over the course since it was public. They were all so friendly and helped as we were at a loss at times in locating the next hole on the somewhat challenging course. It was a long but beautiful course and one we were glad we played.

On the way home we stopped at a small arboretum which was a work in progress. it will be spectacular when finished as even in its infancy it was a nice stop. There are big plans for a garden expansion and a wedding area. There we saw a little waterfall and pond,  beautiful trees, flowers and a little leopard frog. Fun!

We ended the day by stopping at the Attic to pick up n order of Chislic, a unique South Dakotan dish made of chunks of beef (sirloin) or lamb/mutton then seasoned and fried. We paired it with some fried jalapeno cheese curds… decadent? Yes, but an outstanding little splurge… Yum, yum!

NOTE: We left Sioux Falls SD and made several one night stops to where we will be today in Cedar Rapids Iowa…