Eerie Ghost Towns and Rainy Plains: USA Road Trip I

This is part 1 in a series of images from my recent road trip across the USA. See part 2 here.

This past May, one of my best friends, Mélissa, and I took a 5400km-long road trip from Toronto to Vancouver through the USA.

It was beautiful.

When you drive through a place, you seem to develop a bond with it, much stronger than when you fly straight to a destination. It’s like a friend that you meet and get to know, slowly and consistently. At first, you get a general impression, but the more time you spend with them, the more you start to notice details and quirks and character. You may even fall in love after a while, as was the case for me and Montana and for my friend and South Dakota.

Today’s post takes us back through the first 4 days of our trip:

Our first day, at 12 hours of driving from Toronto to Chicago, was the longest of the trip.

We were on a tight schedule, so our time in Chicago was limited to under 24 hours. We still loved it.

Most of our drive through the American Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota) was extremely windy and rainy and cold.

When we arrived in Okaton, a ghost town in central South Dakota, the weather was just gray and dark enough to make it supremely eerie.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get more creepy:

Our next rainy stop was Badlands National Park, a beautiful, rugged land made up of channels of old eroded sedimentary rock (that slightly resembles slices of medium-cooked roast beef).

We explored the park near nightfall and had it entirely to ourselves.

As we went further west, the weather started to cheer up. These are the Black Hills in South Dakota.

Mélissa and I adapting to our surroundings.

And giving it our best rendition of the honky tonk!

Part 2 of the trip, including Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone and the West Coast, will be up on Thursday morning. Be sure to check back!