Today was supposed to be a reasonably nice day with sun and no rain. So, we decided to visit Palisades State Park in South Dakota which is about 45 minutes from our current campground. We set the car GPS and off we went. Needless to say, the car GPS took us on gravel roads. So, I tried the phone GPS. The phone took us to the old park entrance. Good news. There was a sign stating this is not the park entrance and the sign listed the entrance address. We arrived at the actual entrance 15 minutes later after driving on another gravel road :-).

Most South Dakota parks require an entrance fee which of $15 per day for nonresidents. Since we were spending a little over 4 weeks in South Dakota State Parks, we purchased annual passes which was $90 total for both cars. The vehicle entrance fee is one of those hidden fees that folks don’t think about until they visit a park. Most state parks include vehicle fee with the campsite, or you pay the vehicle fee once which counts for the entire stay. Because of the annual pass, we did not have pay the $15 entrance fee to Palisades State Park. Yeah!

The Palisades State Park is known for the Split Rock Creek which runs through park with Sioux quartzite formations along the creek. Many folks will fish the creek and rock climb the Sioux quartzite. See link for information about the Sioux quartzite formations and the history of the park. Palisades State Park | South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks

The first thing we saw upon entering was what appeared to be a newer campground. All the trees were so small that they would not provide any wind protection. The campground had electric only hookup. Most likely this will be a great campground a few years from now. Also, we would not like driving the backroads and potential gravel roads to the campground.

Next, we drove to the end of the park which had another campground. Kate thought there would be a spot for the farthest hiking trail. There was no spot for parking. In total, the park had very little parking for non campers. And most of the parking was not near the hiking trails.

We tried the Split Rock Creek Trail first. This trail runs along the creek. After about 1/4 mile down the trail we were able to walk down to the creek shore and see some of the rock formations and the bridge. John saw a fish in the water. Otherwise, a few birds but no larger animals. We decided to turn around vs. keep going because the next section of the trail was overgrown and had poison ivy. John reacts to poison ivy, and we did not want to take the risk of him having a painful and itchy reaction.

We went to the Pollinator Trail next. We were a little amazed by the lack of pollinator plants and started questioning whether or not the trail had any pollinators. Finally, halfway through the trail was a sign about pollinator area. The area had many beautiful flowers and was a length of around 100 feet. We also saw a flower that was loaded in insects including a spider. Can you find the spider?

If you remember at the beginning of the blog the comment of suppose to be a nice day with no rain. Needless to say, it started sprinkling while we were on the Pollinator Trail. The rain wasn’t a hard downfall, but we were glad that we did not bring John’s cameras with us on this hike.

The next stop was to explore the bridge going over Split Rock Creek Trail. When we walked across the bridge, we could hear the creaking and groaning. I definitely would not want to drive over this bridge. John saw a sign that the bridge had a max load of 3,000 lbs. Fortunately, the bridge road was blocked off on one side to prevent folks from driving over it.

The last stop before heading back was the overlook view. The overlook talks about the grain mill that used to exist which was the reason for the dam and bridge being built.

From here we went to Sioux Falls, SD to get gas and go to Outback with the hopes that John would have a great steak. We ate at Texas Roadhouse and John’s steak was not that great with a lot of gristle. John ordered a filet at Outback and unfortunately the steak was under seasoned and under cooked. We have come the conclusion not to go out for steak in South Dakota. Stick to eating at places like Chick-Fil-e where the food is consistently good.