A complete guide for camping in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland

The greatest, best, and most beautiful place I've ever car camped was on top of a cliff in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. Here's what you need to know.

 
Over the past few years, I've been ever so grateful to cross-off several national parks, state parks, national monuments, national historic parks and sites, county parks, wildlife refuges- just about any slice of public lands I can break ground in with my hiking boots. But I've never been to a national grassland, and gosh I'm so glad I took the time to do so on a recent trip out to otherworldly Badlands National Park and humbling Wind Cave National Park on the western edge of South Dakota, deep in the Black Hills National Forest. Again, more public lands open to exploration. After camping in the developed campground inside Badlands National Park for two nights, Brenna and I were craving more solitude for our third night of our by way of wagon travels. So a few nights before loading up my black Saab 9-2x with outdoor gear, I hopped on FreeCampsites.com, plugged in our location, and found a jaw-dropping dispersed camping area called the Badlands Overlook, inside the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. It soon turned out to be the most incredible spot I've ever pitched a tent while not backpacking.

The backstory. Buffalo Gap National Grassland sits on 600,000 acres sprawled across southwestern South Dakota and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Its the second largest protected national grassland and dotted with endless miles of stunning prairie and chalk-colored geological formations identical to those found in nearby Badlands National Park. All of this, every single acre of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, is open for you to explore by foot, bike, or horse. It's a wonderful blotch of public lands for a day trip or a multiple-night backpacking expedition into the backcountry, where you don't need a permit. You'll witness vibrant colors everywhere, abundant wildlife, old homesteads, and windmills, and a cast of puzzling rock formations. National grasslands are incredibly important for the economy too, generating some $10.3 billion dollars as a direct result of outdoor recreation.

Our country's grasslands are free. Absolutely free. Like most National Forest land, unless posted, dispersed camping in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland (and the 17 other designated national grasslands encompassing four million acres) is completely free. But, you should buy an annual national park pass anyway because those are your dollars going directly towards supporting your public lands. Make Teddy Roosevelt proud.

Use these GPS coordinates to arrive. The enormous national grassland shares a southern border with Badlands National Park. If you're coming from inside Badlands National Park, continue west on the main Badlands Loop Road. Right before the pavement ends, veer right towards the park's Pinnacles Entrance station and continue driving north on SD 240. At this point, you will be in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland (look for the sign). The entrance to the dispersed camping area we're talking about here, Badlands Overlook, is located on the right/east side of the road. When you start to see tall cell towers, keep a close eye out for dirt road #7170. When you arrive at #7170 seen below (or #7175), you'll immediately notice a barbed wire fence blocking the road. This is to control free-range cattle, so you'll need to get out and move the fence out of the way, drive through, and then replace the fence, securing it tightly. It is imperative and mandatory you follow this step, replacing the fence right after you drive through. The U.S. Forest Service occasionally will close this dispersed camping area if the barbed wire fence is neglected and not replaced. Don't be that one guy or gal. Once you're piloting your vehicle, 4x4 recommended, down the bumpy dirt road, it's open game for setting up camp. Most will park along the tops of the cliffs that overlook into the Badlands. GPS coordinates are 43.890031, -102.226789.

Here's why camping in Buffalo Gap National Grassland is a dream. A pure, remote car camping experience like none other. Spending a night here, above a steep cliff in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland was one of the most memorable, surreal, and fascinating times I've had in the outdoors, blowing away all other car camping I've done at state and national parks in the past. We drove about ten minutes along a dirt road the skirts its way along the top of the cliffs to find the perfect spot, a peninsula-like patch of land with drop-offs in all directions just feet from our tent. Chances are you'll see very few other people that are "in the know" about this hidden treasure, and if you do, there's plenty of room to spread out. When we were there the last week of August, there were a few other camper vans, tents, and one or two bigger campers being pulled behind some behemoth of a heavy-duty pickup truck. There's no noise, no sounds of generators, no artificial light, no commotion- just silence.

With our Coleman Flatwoods II tent pitched and Yakima's new SlimShady awning they generously mailed me to review, deployed from the roof of my station wagon, we set up two chairs, a 'table' and cracked open a few cold Potosi beers. But before jumping into dinner, the most amazing sunset I've ever seen filled the sky. It instantly felt like a dream, as the sky exploded with reds and oranges, casting a soft golden hour glow onto Buffalo Gap's rolling prairies. We slowly ventured into the grassland towards the slow falling sun that brought out the shadows of the dark Black Hills, visible on the way distant horizon. It was a sight so good, it gave me the chills. The seclusion and solitaire experienced here at the Badlands Overlook was gripping, almost hypnotizing.

A few final things to consider. Oh yes, there are a few important considerations you need to take into effect when planning a trip here:

• First, there's no water anywhere, so make sure you have your 5-gallon jug filled up to the max.
• This is about as primitive as it gets when camping. There's zero development, no bathrooms, electrical hook-ups, floating park rangers, trails, dumpsters for trash, nothing- just open wilderness for you to love and enjoy.
• There are no fires allowed, so bring a gas stove.
• It can be INSANELY windy. Yes, I felt childish spelling that out with my caps lock key engaged, but 'tis true. The closer you pitch a tent or camp near the cliffs, the windier it will be. When we were there, our tent was fighting a fierce battle with unthinkably strong gusts of probably 40-50 mph winds. No joke.
• Buy a topographic map of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands online or at the visitor center in Badlands National Park. It's green, reliable, and will be your trusty friend.
• Have an all-wheel-drive or 4x4 vehicle with decent ground clearance. You don't want to get stuck on some of the rough roads when navigating through the grassland.
• Since this dispersed camping area is so under-the-radar, please consciously practice Leave No Trace. Respect this special national grassland and what it has to offer you.
• Places nearby you should also visit
• Buffalo Gap National Grassland is located close to many other fantastic public lands you can easily reach, including Badlands National Park (~2 miles, 5 minutes), Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (~29 miles, 30 minutes), Wind Cave National Park (~111 miles, 2 hours), and Jewel Cave National Monument (~113 miles, 2 hours).

I truly hope this post and its accompanying photos encourage you to get out and visit a national grassland near you. They're spectacular, should never be dismissed or ignored, and deserve the utmost appreciation and admiration that all of our national parks get.

Cheers,
Robby

An October update

Greetings and happy Thursday, fall is here and it's time for a little life update.

During my lunch hour today, I felt like doing a bit of travel blogging because in just six hours I'm hopping on a Southwest Airlines flight to Denver. I'm taking a break from my jam-packed schedule of visiting all the Wisconsin state parks, to do my annual fall backpacking trip, before beginning a long winter's hibernation. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to cold, weekend mornings with hot coffee, a vinyl playing. The next three days I'll be backpacking with two of my best friends at Colorado's Great Sand Dunes National Park, located outside of Mosca, in the shadows of the jagged Sangre de Cristo range. It's been almost impossible to concentrate at work this week, knowing I'll be exploring yet another new national park. My 7:40pm departure cannot come soon enough. 

There's something about Great Sand Dunes that seriously intrigues me. Years ago in spring 2015, when I made the trek back home to Wisconsin after living in Colorado for a six-month seasonal job at a YMCA teaching outdoor education, I stopped very briefly here to see for myself, the mesmerizing sand dunes and snowcapped peaks beyond it. I was floored in fascination and had I not needed to hustle to Durango, Colorado to replace a blown tire, I would have stayed longer. The energy I felt for a few hours at Great Sand Dunes was gravitating, pulling me in with curiosity. There's no place like this elsewhere in, Colorado, the United States, if not, the world. It's a dramatic, almost make-believe landscape and I'm ecstatic to be able to return and dedicate more much-needed time to taking it all in. I look forward to being able to show gratitude to this quiet, diverse display of wilderness. My heart feels calm when I think about revisiting this national park.

Our current plan is to spend one night out in the northern part of the expansive sand dune field, then hike a bit towards the foot of the Sangres that circle the park and spend our second night in the backcountry there. On the third day, we'll hike back towards the trailhead, reached via a 4X4 road, load up a Volvo SUV with all of our gear and head back to Colorado Springs to thaw out (temperatures are indicating low-20s at night), relax in a hot tub with Pikes Peak lingering in the distance, and throw back a few craft beers prior to boarding a super late flight back to Wisconsin out of Denver.

Earlier this year, I made my list of goals and resolutions for 2018, and on that list, one of my keynote items was to visit three national park properties. I smiled when I opened my medicine cabinet this morning and read that goal jotted on a piece of faded notebook paper, hanging on the other side of the mirror.

Cheers,
Robby

Every adventure vehicle needs a Yakima SlimShady deployable awning

Will the real slim shady, please stand up. 

You cannot have a station wagon without a roof rack. Well, at least that's my mantra. Roof racks are a mandatory feature, an imperative must-have for me when it comes to car shopping. Sure, you can open the liftgate on a station wagon and fold down its seats to create a cavern of cargo space that rivals even bigger SUVs, but some items we use in the magical hobby of outdoor recreation just, won't, fit. Like a kayak, or a pair of skis with three snowboards, or a mountain bike. That's when crossbars, cargo boxes and rails become your best friend.

When I bought my 2005 Saab 9-2x four years and 118,000 miles ago, the "Adventure Mobile's" roof was naked. No rails, no crossbars, nothing. After an unsuccessful and naive attempt at strapping a universal eBay special roof rack on top, whose aft crossbar became loose and flew off on I90 heading down into Denver, I finally found an OEM-spec setup from Thule that fit perfectly. There are even Saab stickers on its towers. Since I ski, and camp, and backpack, and bike, and kayak (all the above on repeat) I needed some accessories. Eventually over time, accumulated some goodies from Yakima, like their Big Powderhound which carefully transports my beloved skis and a few friends' snowboards to the slopes. Months back, I splurged at the local REI and came home with a RocketBox Pro 11, which swallows up a massive amount of outdoor gear and looks badass mounted atop a black all-wheel-drive station wagon. It also serves as a blank canvas for stickers I pick up from trips to National Parks, Forests, and Grasslands. Remember, stickers make you go faster.

I swear every time I pick up a Yakima catalog or peruse through their website, they've got some ultra-cool new impressive product available for your roof rack. There are racks for nearly every type of outdoor activity, cargo baskets and boxes of all sizes, gizmos that attach the back of your pickup truck bed and allow you to securely carry a kayak or canoe, and of course, their Skyrise tents, a sweet cozy tent that folds out from your roof rack and you climb a ladder to get up to.

Then there's the SlimShady, which Yakima sent me to review. No, not Detroit's Eminem, but an excellent new product that's remarkably useful and intuitive. It's an ideal gadget to have when you're spending time on the road, hopping around between national or state parks. The SlimShady is an awning that mounts horizontally (parallel with the length of your car) to your roof rack's crossbars, unzips, and folds out and away from the car to create a shaded escape next to your vehicle. Brilliant, right? Hanging out next to the race track on a rainy day? Unroll the SlimShady. Want to stay cool at the sun-baked campsite while enjoying a mug of coffee in the morning? Unroll the SlimShady. When set up properly, it creates 42 square feet of welcoming coverage, right off the side of your car. The uses for this awning are endless. So let's get to it.

For $279, Yakima's SlimShady will mount essentially to any roof rack as long as you have crossbars, no tools required. Once it's all rolled away and zipped shut in its 6.5ft long case, the SlimShady is skinny, and at 21 pounds can be carried with one hand/arm. This means too that stowing the SlimShady when not in use takes up minimal space in your gear closet or garage.

After measuring up the distance between your crossbars, it's just a matter of easily spinning a knob on each mounting assembly which brings a pair of claws closer to your crossbars and secures the SlimShady in place. It's also lockable with Yakima's SKS key system, which works with other rooftop products. Driving with the SlimShady on top of my station wagon, there's little to none wind noise and for the most part the black "bag" it sits inside, isn't an instigator of drag.

Setting up the SlimShady can be done solo, but it is a bit tricky and helps to have another set of hands available. Total setup time takes about ten minutes. Begin by unzipping the protective case, folding it back, and undoing the two velcro straps binding the actual awning. Next, grab the front metal bar/edge of the nylon awning and with two strong arms, pull it out from the cover, and then begin to walk backwards, unrolling it. Keep in mind that doing this step is a bit precarious in the wind. my girlfriend and I learned this the hard way when setting up the SlimShady atop a bluff campsite in the gorgeous Buffalo Gap National Grassland, the best place I have ever car camped.

One the awning is unrolled, two metal poles unfold and drop from the center to create its legs. They're adjustable so that even when the SlimShady isn't mounted to a particularly tall truck or SUV, you still get ample shade and coverage. Two additional metal support beams unfold outward from the awning's mounted beam and stretch horizontally towards the front of the awning to meet the two vertical legs. Adjustments are easily made again by simply twisting the metal poles.

With your frame established, the SlimShady can be securely grounded via two guy-wires and two heavy-duty stakes. A small pouch containing the stakes gets tucked away into the awning once it's all rolled up and zipped shut. Velcro straps on either side of the horizontal support beams secure the awning tight.

We first tested the durable SlimShady last month on a five day trip across South Dakota's Badlands and Black Hills, where it was a perfect addition to our cliffside campsite in the sprawling Buffalo Gap National Grassland. As an explosive sunset filled the sky and began to set, we strung a set of battery-powered LED lights across the SlimShady, pulled out two camping chairs, a portable table, and enjoyed a cold Potosi beer while we waited on our dinner to cook. Even in strong winds, once the SlimShady was set up, it held its position. While we thankfully avoided stormy clouds the nigh we were there, the SlimShady's awning is waterproof.

The only problem and complaint I have with the SlimShady, and its unfortunately been a continued one, is how difficult it is to roll the awning back up into its roof rack-mounted case. The protective cover itself is just too small, too tight, and needs to be at least an inch or two bigger. I found myself having to roll it up as tightly as I could, attempt to zip it shut, but then to no avail, unfold the awning completely and try again. This is frustrating, especially when you're on-the-go and wanting to leave your campsite quickly and hit the road. You can roll the awning away as tightly as possible, and zip about 90% of the case up and still have 10% of that awning exposed to the elements. If only Yakima could make the case that the SlimShady rolls up into only a tad bit bigger, that would be tremendously helpful and more user-friendly. Hopefully, they'll take this into consideration when SlimShady version 2.0 arrives.

Cheers,
Robby