D13 & I are planning a post-graduation trip, just the two of us, to the Badlands, Black Hills, and Yellowstone.
We’ll have some stretches of driving during the trip, ideal for a (shorter) audiobook. Also, I’d like to take along several books, either on my iPad (kindle app) or “tree” books.
Does anyone have some recommendations? I’m thinking of books having something to do with the areas we’ll be visiting on the trip. History, biography, nature, public policy even, as long as it’s a good interesting story.
I’ve already read, although not recently, the following: Wolf Wars by Hank Fisher. Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, Death in Yellowstone by Lee H. Whittlesey, and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown.
“Lost in the Yellowstone” is a tale of survival in the early days of exploring and mapping the area. “The Yellowstone Fly Fishing Guide” is an important reference if that is a potential part of the plan. “A River Runs Through It” if you haven’t read it, about growing up in Montana. I haven’t read it yet, but “Celine: A Novel” by Peter Heller came out recently and his books are highly entertaining. Yellowstone figures into that book as well.
This is not Yellowstone-related, but it’s about getting lost in the woods AND baseball. Hard to beat that “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,” by Stephen King. My kids (who were younger than graduating high-schoolers, granted) were mesmerized and have never forgotten it since we listened to it on our long road trip. It’s not a kid’s book, but it’s about a kid. Nothing horror- or supernatural-related. Well, not really.
I’m married to an English major from South Dakota and have made the looong drive from Sioux Falls to the Hills too many times, so this may be more than you wanted, lol.
If you are looking for good fiction,
By the Shores of Silver Lake - one of the Little House on the Prarie books about Laura Ingells Wilder’s move from Minnesotas to De Smitt.
Leaving the Land - a story about a farming family’s trivails in South Dakota
In Calamity’s Wake - a newer book about Calamity Jane’s travels through the Black Hills
If you want more history and less fiction, I liked The Black Hills Story which is a recounting of the gold rush and the founding of the hills/Deadwood.
If you want bubble gum fiction, Nora Roberts’ Badlands is not bad.
Enjoy the trip. The badlands are really cool. Deadwood is less so. I would take a drive to Devil’s Tower as well. I don’t know which way you are coming in to the area, but if coming from the East, don’t forget to stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell and Wall Drug.
We recently did a drive through SD & did Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, etc. Not exactly a book recommendation, but as a long time LIW fan, I wanted to stop somewhere, so did De Smet, SD and really enjoyed the walk about, of course after two days in the car and hitting the town about 5PM when it was covered with golden evening light and tractors were mowing, it was a pretty magical out of the car outing, one caveat, the little maps are not to scale, walking from all the rest of the sites to the cemetery took much longer than expected.
Definitely reading a LIW book or two would apply to going through that area.
Although not in the area, we loved the audio version of “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson on our long drive to Yellowstone and the Badlands. We had already read it, but the audio had us laughing out loud many times during that beautiful drive.
I grew up in SD, I probably know OhioDad’s wife or at least we probably have mutual acquaintances. The population is that small. My folks (SD for parents) still live in Sioux Falls.
For SD History, we read about Hugh Glass (recently popularized by the Revenant movie). There are a lot of options there.
There is a Fish Hatchery in Spearfish that you can feed the fish. If you would rather catch and eat fish, there are many streams in and around.
Hot Springs has…you guessed it, hot springs. Plenty to enjoy there.
Homestake Gold Mine tours in Lead. (pronounced LEED, not LED). Homestake was one of the last productive gold mines in the US and source of much of the famous Black Hills Gold.
When you are in the Black Hills, you are West River. Near Sioux Falls, East River. Geography is measured by which side of the Missouri River you happen to be on. East River is farms. West River is ranches.
How about Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” – not about the areas you’re going to, but definitely about a woman in the wilderness, finding herself. I’m not into “woman finding herself” books, but this one was special.
This may sound strange and I don’t know if they still do it but South Dakota tourism use to have an audio cassette (maybe a disc now or something else) that you gave a deposit for at the welcome center. The tape would narrate the area that you were traveling through. Our kids thought it was hokey but it passed the time and was fairly interesting. You could drop it off later in the mail and get your money back.
With the current speed limits, the drive is not that long. If you like to stop along the way, it is only an hour or so from Sioux Falls to Mitchell. The Corn Palace is interesting to some. I never really thought much about it, not my cup of tea. Another couple of hours and you are at Al’s Oasis for a cold soft drink and to stretch your legs. Another hour or so and you are at Badlands National Park. 275 miles to that point. The drive is straight, flat and wide open on I-90 most of the year. Avoid 1st week of August unless you like slower traffic and really like motorcycles.
When on a canoe trip through Missouri Breaks, in Montana, I prepared by reading Sacajawea by Ann Waldo. It is a long, long historic novel, taking you through her entire lifespan. There are quotes from Lewis and Clark to introduce the historical context, and then the fiction takes off from there. I will never look at the Missouri river and that part of the upper Midwest in the same way after reading this book, as it talks about the native tribes and way of life for the early settlers in such detail.
Giants in the Earth, written in 1927 by Ole Edvaart Rolvag is a more adult book on Norwegian settlement in the Dakotas, if darker than Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Though about Nebraska, reading Willa Cather aloud to each other might be a great pleasure, as the wriing is beautiful. There are many novels and short stories.
As suggested by @greatlakesmom, Giants in the Earth is a great book. And @Torveaux, I am glad to hear some South Dakotan’s are not enamoured with the Corn Palace. I always thought it was goofy, but my wife loves it and it has always seemed to me to be a kind of singular South Dakota experience. I have taken several pictures over the years of the kids standing next to that stupid statute, lol.
“The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,” by Stephen King. My kids (who were younger than graduating high-schoolers, granted) were mesmerized and have never forgotten it since we listened to it on our long road trip. It’s not a kid’s book, but it’s about a kid. Nothing horror- or supernatural-related. Well, not really. 