A country road south of Kidder in Marshall County.

Resolutions of Adventure for 2018

Jan 25, 2018

By Katie Hunhoff

Have you already broken your New Year’s resolution? If so, don’t feel badly.

Forty percent of Americans make them every January, but only an estimated 8 percent stick to them, according to a study by the University of Scranton. Most people abandon their good intentions by Groundhog’s Day.

Maybe we should all make happier resolutions. Who needs to walk more miles on a treadmill or eat fewer sweets? In that spirit, I asked some of the people who contribute stories to our magazine to make resolutions on where they’d like to travel in the New Year. They came up with a list of places that would make a sweet bucket list for any South Dakotan.       

Here’s where you might find our writers this summer. And knowing them all like I do, I also wouldn’t be surprised to see them at the local cafe enjoying a slice of homemade pie with ice cream.

           
Bernie Hunhoff

South Dakota Magazine editor-at-large

I resolve to get up to Harding County in 2018. It’s been a while since I’ve been there, and it’s one of my favorite places in the world — very pristine and original landscapes, and of course salt-of-the-earth people with no shortage of stories. The only reason we don’t get there more often is the distance — from Yankton, I think you can drive to Denver or Chicago faster than you can drive to Camp Crook. But personally I’d rather explore Camp Crook.

Linda Hasselstrom

Hermosa rancher and author of 16 books, most recently Gathering from the Grassland: A Plains Journal

1. Poet's Table: a return trip; 2. Lame Johnny Cave; 3. Community Cave; 4. Ghost town of Creston; 5. Scored Rock Petroglyphs, on private land at an undisclosed location

Paul Higbee

Spearfish writer, and author of South Dakota’s Cowboy Governor Tom Berry

There are three things in the southeast corner of the state I have never done, and I plan to do them all in a single day next fall: visit Burbank, eat at Whimps, and watch a football game in the Dakota Dome. 

Lance Nixon

Freelance writer, Pierre

The one place my family and I are definitely making plans to visit in 2018 (again) is the Fort Pierre National Grassland as the spring courtship rituals of the greater prairie chicken and sharp-tailed grouse are taking place. The birds will be out dancing on their traditional grounds, or leks, at the crack of dawn in about April and May. The U.S. Forest Service, which manages the national grassland, allows people to reserve a blind free of charge by simply calling ahead. For me the most stunning thing is the sound the prairie chickens make — like listening to musicians playing woodwind instruments from another world. However, my wife and children insist the sharp-tailed grouse are better dancers.

Laura Andrews

South Dakota Magazine writer and circulation director

I'm decades behind on my South Dakota travel — I was in my 30s before I made it to Utica, over on the wrong side of Yankton County — and am itching to get caught up a bit in 2018. Ipswich is calling my name, as is Lemmon's famed Petrified Wood Park. I'd also like to find out what goes on in Mud Butte, and I hear they serve a mean Bloody Mary in Hudson. But more familiar places exert their own pull. You can't beat a trip to the Colome-Carlock-Gregory-Dallas area, especially when you've got local food blogger Fran Hill as your guide, and ever since I drove down into Wessington Springs on my way home from Pierre one rainy, blustery spring day, I have wanted to return to those Jerauld County hills. Perhaps this will be the year.