To infinity and beyond: South Dakota and North Dakota
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We’d been thinking of visiting South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Badlands national park for almost a year. Then an opportunity came when one of our friends gave us a buy-one-get-one-free coupon from Delta. We did not hestitate even a bit in buying two tickets for a round trip from Chicago to Rapid City, SD. Although it was an impulsive trip, we had a lot of fun observing the wildlife in the great plains of South Dakota and North Dakota.
We started our journey on June 22. It is always a long journey if we start from the small city of Champaign. We first took a train to catch a flight from Midway to Minneapolis. But the flight got so delayed that we would not make it to another flight from Minneapolis to Rapid City. Because of that, we needed to change a flight from Chicago to an earlier one. It took us in total of 12 hours just to go from Champaign to Rapid city, which was as long as if we drive there. Anyway, South Dakota and North Dakota are rare gems to us. We never thought that these states could be so gorgeous!
On the first day there, we went to Devil’s tower in Wyoming first. The tower is in Wyoming, but it’s very close to South Dakota. We could spot it from afar (10 miles from the location, I think). The tower is naturally formed igneous rock and was considered a sacred place by the native around there in the past. Besides the tower, we also got to see a prairie dog town. Unlike those we saw in Badlands and Theodore Roosevelt National Parks, prairie dogs here are not afraid of humans. We took a lot of pictures of them!
In the afternoon of the first day, we went to Mount Rushmore and Badlands. Mount Rushmore is an iconic place that is known worldwide. It was not the most impressive place we have been to, but it was not as bad as some people told us. (We have been told that the actual sculpture is small. No, it’s not. I think it’s very impressive sculpture, just not so much to see.) Then we were headed off to Badlands. What we did were basically stopping at every view point. We spent so many hours even though we didn’t hike at all. We saw a lot of wildlife including bisons, rattlesnalkes, prairie dogs, and pronghorns. The last stop in the park for us was the Panorama view point where we saw a beutiful sunset and mountain goats there.
On the second day, we only had one place to visit, Theordore Roosevelt National Park. The reason that we could only fit one attraction on that day was because of the long distance from Rapid city to the park. We spent 9 hours just to drive back and forth. We stopped at the painted canyon which is part of the park but not close to other parts of the park first. We then reached the foot of the park around noon, so we stopped at Cowboy Café in Medora for lunch. Medora is a cute cowboy-themed city and the nearest place to the park that offers food and gas.
We then went to the south unit of the park. The view were mostly like painted canyons but the area was also very green, which was very contrastly beautiful. After that, we drove for one more hour to get to the north unit. I think the north unit offers more variety of scenaries. We love the area with all the cannon balls. The spot was so unique! We also got to see more than 50 bisons walking along the park’s fence. That was the first time I saw so many bisons. Overall, this trip impressed us in many ways. We both love the nature in this part of the country and also love driving there as there were almost no car. We would totally recommend it!
Despite the polar vortex that swept through Illinois, we decided to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, driving from our home in Champaign. Along the way, we got to meet some friends in Cincinnati and Akron. In fact, we didn’t stop only at Cuyahoga Valley; we also continued on to see a much bigger set of falls in upstate New York—Niagara Falls. Everything was freezing cold, but the fresh snow somehow gave the entire trip a magical atmosphere.
Foliage season feels so fleeting to me, so Poy and I never really planned to chase fall colors anywhere beyond our university campus. But there are a few national parks that are especially beautiful in autumn, and we wanted to try visiting them at their peak. We followed the fall–color predictions closely and booked our flights well in advance to keep costs down. On this trip, we were lucky enough to catch vibrant red and yellow leaves in Shenandoah, New River Gorge, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. We also had the chance to explore the beautiful wetlands of Congaree National Park before flying back home!
At the end of Summer 2025, we embarked on a grand tour of the northern United States. Our goal was to explore a mix of popular national parks and hidden gems across Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington. The journey took us through breathtaking mountain ranges and bountiful wilderness teeming with wildlife. Thanks to booking our flights more than six months in advance, we were lucky enough to fly directly out of Champaign, a perfect start to our adventure!
This past July, we embarked on a whirlwind three-day trip to visit some of California’s national parks that were still on our list, namely, Channel Islands, Pinnacles, and Kings Canyon. While they may be less famous than their neighbors, we found them to be refreshing, full of fun, and wonderfully family-friendly. The trip was a showcase of California’s diverse wildlife, giving us our first-ever sightings of whales, island foxes, scrub jays, and California quails, and that’s not even counting the school of dolphins that raced our ferry to and from the Channel Islands!