Visit South
Dakota
Pictures and Information
South Dakota is a huge state. It takes approximately six hours to drive from East to West. But what a drive it is. Lot's of wide open spaces, scenic views, and landscape that is picture perfect.
Your first impression of South Dakota may be that there is nothing here... but look a little harder and you will see that this is a very scenic state with lots of fun things to do. Not only visiting the small towns in the Black Hills, but the central section of South Dakota, with the Francis Case Lake, is just beautiful.
Do you like the colors gold and green? That is the most prominent colors in the state, especially during the summer.
The fields are like gold because of the wheat, and hayfields. I just can't seem to take enough pictures. Here's an example below. On one side is an Alfalfa field and on the other side a hay field. Look how far you can see too. Generally, the view is 10 miles.
Southern South Dakota Towns
Most of the towns in southern South Dakota are small towns and they have small populations, and virtually no crime, because everyone knows each other and respects their property. We moved to the Southern South Dakota town called Tripp, and all of the towns listed in the navigation, we have recently visited and explored. See the map of these SD towns.
More Pictures of Southern South Dakota
Summer
Pictures
-Haywheels stacked in a field.... haywheels
stacked in a field... see another view
-Haywheels
on the side of the road... haywheels
on the side of the road
-Rolled
Hay Bales on a truckbed
-No wasted space in SD, even the grass
on the side of the highway gets rolled
-A view in southern South Dakota...
South Dakota view
-A South Dakota
farm... South Dakota Farm... a
silo in the sunset
-South Dakota farmfield... farmfield
view
-Tractor tracks in a field... tractor
tracks
-A cow farm.... cows on a farm...
cows near a creek
-After the harvest... after
the harvest... corn and hay field
-A
sign for Telecopier Permits... Telecopier
Permit sign... Harvester sign
-Here's
pretty much what South Dakota looks like
-South
Dakota sunset... summer sunset...
more colorful clouds... popcorn
clouds... closer view
-Storm coming...
storm coming
-The Missouri River
separates South Dakota from Nebraska... Missouri
River
-A South Dakota train passes under Interstate
90.... SD train
The Fall Season in SD
September So what's it like in the Fall in South Dakota? The first thing I noticed is that the cows are a lot happier with the cool weather. They don't hide under the trees anymore, and most herds you will find closer to the roads. On the way back from Mitchell on Highway 37 we even saw a herd of Buffalo! In the middle of September, about 200 Monarch butterflies migrated through our yard, and they stayed about a week.
October 20 we found a lot of lady bugs in our yard, mostly on the back of the house facing the sun. It's a good thing I took the time to caulk the windows in Sept., or there would have been a problem. I suspect that lady bugs don't migrate, and what you have in your yard hides and stays there, because whenever it get warm they come out again. Here's some that got caught in our rain water bucket, they seem to be that Asian variety because they are all different.
The fields around us are now different shades of brown, and some farmers have planted cover crops, and those fields are green. The cornfields are all dried up and they are just starting to harvest the dried corn. I also noticed that the grainery on the other side of Tripp, SD has been running 24-7 for 2 months now. The harvest is coming in, I guess, and I need to study up on how a grainery works. Fall farm
Even by the end of October, all of our leaves are still green and on the trees, very few have turned yellow. The trees seem to turn colors one by one, instead of all at once like they do in New England.
There hasn't been any cold weather yet. A couple of nights it dropped to the 40's, but by the next day it warmed up again. It rained a straight week in early October.
Fall
Pictures
-Cows near a creek
- a silo in the sunset - fall
sunset - the field in back of our house
turned golden
November has been dry, no rain at all, it got down
to the 20's a couple of nights. brrrr. Still waiting for snow.
December
we got 4 inches of snow on Christmas Eve.
South Dakota websites
__________________________________________________
New
and Updated Pages
Make a reservation
at a South Dakota hotel
Pollock, SD - 3/18/08 A small town located near
the border of North and South Dakota, see pictures
Menno,
SD - 3/15/08 took a trip to Menno, SD and added the pictures.
Lakota
Indians Withdraw Treaties with USA - The Lakota Sioux Indian withdrawal from
all treaties with the U.S. government.
Jamestown
No Dakota - Jamestown ND was one of our stops on the way back to Southern
So Dakota. See pictures and video.
Tripp So Dakota
- Added winter pictures and events. Also see Armour
SD and Parkston SD