The Dakota's The Most Underrated States I Have Ever Been To

                               

    I am currently at 49 states on my 50 states mission! Michigan will be my last state which is planned for this summer. It's been an exciting ride, and that's a whole other article and/or YouTube video in the works. I don't think I'll write an article about every state, but the Dakota's were really special, and I want to share what made these less visited states so much fun and so exciting for me in Summer of 2024.

                        

    I had originally planned to do the Dakotas alongside with Montana and Wyoming, it quickly became clear that these states were too big to do altogether, especially on a time crunch, so I made them two separate trips, I then realized how wrong I was about them being "so big", when I set my GPS for day 1's driving, it was telling me at 7am I would arrive 11am or so, but I thought day 1 was a 5 hour drive, then I saw it was indeed a 5 hour drive, it involved crossing a time zone, these states are not "so big" they are so gigantic they have more than 1 time zone!

                         

    From there it was time to spend a week exploring these two giant states, these are very untraveled places in the USA except for maybe Mount Rushmore, you don't hear of too many people that visit either of the Dakotas, and I'll admit my expectations even with my research was that it would be a check mark for the 50 states, and nothing special. I was incredibly wrong. Here's my quick bullet points and recount of visiting these 2 beautiful states.

                                     

• The rental car, for most of the 50 states I was able to secure a one way rental car for the trip, this was great to start in West Virginia and end in Indiana for example. This wasn't an option for me when I booked the Dakotas, the price difference was almost $1,000 more, now this can change daily and vary widely, but for that week of summer I decided I would do a round trip, and conveniently it didn't really change anything for what I wanted to see and do.
  
  

  

  Upgraded to a pick up for the adventure
  
  

  
  
• I arrived in Fargo early evening and did a 2 hour drive to Watertown, South Dakota, there was nothing too special about Watertown, it just seemed to be a bigger town to stop in on the way to the main attractions of South Dakota, which would be the 5 hour drive, I didn't want to land and drive 7 hours, so a budget hotel in Watertown sufficed for the night before the adventure began.
  
  
• Day one was a long drive, and I wanted to get to Badlands national park sooner rather than later, but there were too many tempting spots to pull over that the drive took longer than planned, one such places was Fort Hayes Old West Town, it was used in the Dances With Wolves, film and was a great spot to stretch my legs and tour, there were plenty of spots, this was definitely a nice one to sight see.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Badlands is a fantastic park! Parts of it absolutely beautiful, parts of it looked flat out like a different planet! Great to spend a few hours, even a few days to see what this park has to offer with hikes and sight seeing, I was of course hoping to see a Buffalo but didn't catch one there.
  
                          
  
  
• Mount Rushmore!
  
                    
  
  
• I posted up for the night in Rapid City, while I don't usually prefer a hotel, the hotel Alex Johnson by Hilton was in a historic building and had a great rooftop bar to enjoy the night before the next days driving.
  
  
• Now this was the Dakota's trip, but when in Rome, Mount Rushmore and Rapid City were too close to Devil's Tower in Wyoming to say no, and then the way back to North Dakota, would also cross me thru Montana, so why not? Of course fortunately they would both get their own dedicated trip down the line, but it was a nice appetizer of things to come.
                  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• I stayed that night in a small town called Belfield. This was a type of town with two restaurants, a cafe, small place. I ate AMAZING North Dakota chicken, I don't know if thats the name, but that's what I called it, chicken breast with swiss cheese, mixed peppers, and Alfredo sauce, writing this reminds me I still need to try to make this at home. Belfied was a good launching point for Theodor Roosevelt national park! 
                   
                  

  

  North Dakota Chicken!
  
  

                      
  
  
• Another breathtaking place for hiking and sight seeing, and even though I didn't catch the Buffalo in Badlands, Theodore gifted me a herd of over 100 (from a safe distance of course).
  
  
  
  
• I saw several other Buffalo in the park, one perhaps a bit too close! But luckily the rental truck was with me!
  
  
  
  
• If I wasn't fulfilled enough with Buffalo I made one more stop in Jamestown, North Dakota to see the largest statue built of the beautiful animal.
  
                    
  
  
• From there it was back to Fargo.
  
  
  
  
• Fargo surprisingly had a very fun night life scene! I also had some great dinners there, and met great people.
  
                                          
  
  
  
  
• The last night was a concert for the state fair, The Goo Goo dolls, for the 50 states mission, I timed out some of the potentially boring states with bands I like that were on tour. So if the trip was a bust, at least I'd see a good concert at the end, the concert was great, but of course the Dakotas were even better!
  
  

         

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I sometimes say the best things aren't always posted, that being said, the driving itself had just random beauty I saw with the rolling plains, or small towns, and of course friendly people.

    As I headed back to the small airport I had a feeling of nostalgia and happiness... I came in expecting nothing, and left with so much more. These are not fly over states, maybe they are not for everyone, but the Dakotas were a special place for me. I'm glad I got a taste of them, and without a doubt I hope that one day in life I will go back.

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