Have you ever been on a perfect road at a perfect time in a perfect place. South Dakota Route 44 and US Highway 18 is just what I needed on this trip to Denver. Leaving Spirit Lake Iowa it is about a two hour ride to the South Dakota Border. The rest of Iowa on Route 9 in Northern Iowa is one big cornfield. Once crossing the Big Sioux River into South Dakota the terrain is much the same. Cornfields and small towns consume the landscape until you run into the the Missouri River and everything changes. You are truly in the west and heading into the high plains. As you drop into the Missouri River basin there are hills, ridges and forested areas on both side of the river. It is a site for sore eyes after the 150 miles of cornfields.
After crossing the river I climb out of the basin through rolling hills. This is cattle country with the badlands in the distance. It becomes a lonely road once entering the Lakota and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations. A little depressing as well worn Government housing dots the Landscape. Stopping to get gas in Winner SD, I did get to exchange words with some people of the Lakota Nation. They did seem to be a happy lot. A proud warrior nation I pass the cemetery with it's veterans monument. I have to admit they do live in a beautiful area in this place of South Dakota. 
The ride becomes lonely without any traffic. It is good to own the road this day. Once reaching the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation it was time to turn south into Nebraska. This real pine ridge runs from Western South Dakota into the panhandle of Nebraska. This part of Nebraska is highly unusual with the Nebraska National Forest Dominating the area. This is not your Instate 80 Nebraska. There is a unique beauty here like no other place that I have been too. I finally stop for the night Chadron on the edge of the Nebraska National Forest. I vow to one day return and make this ride again. I must do it again on another road less traveled.
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