Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard the phrase “the journey is the destination.” It’s a bit overdone, isn’t it, especially if you prefer to travel by plane. But if you’ve taken a road trip, you know this all too well to be true.
One of the best parts of any road trip are the random roadside attractions. Even after hours of highway driving, the perfect pulloff can refresh you and get you through the rest of the day. Of all the states I drove through, South Dakota takes the cake for the best highway pulloffs.
There are the famous stops with billboards every few miles from Chicago to Rapid City, like Wall Drug, where you can take old-timey pictures and dine on fresh doughnuts (though this is not a recommended stop during covid). But there are also less famous stops, things that you just see on the side of the road that cause you to swerve towards the next exit.
Porter Sculpture Park is one of those places. Driving west on I-90, just past Souix Falls, a massive horse and ox head stick out from the prarie lining the highway. I saw them and thought “What the heck, I need a break… may as well go check this out!”
Nestled between a dirt road and a major cross-country highway is a maze of sculptures made of found metal scrap, and pointed poems painted on white boards. I spent over an hour at the sculpture garden, exploring each of over 50 installations.
Maybe you’ve heard of the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Kansas? Well, at Porter’s, you can take in the glory of the World’s Largest Invisible Ball of Twine. Very impressive!
There is also the row of buzzard politicians ominously roosting alongside the trail. (Dang I was not prepared for this kind of political commentary in South Dakota).
And the horse and ox head, which (and I can’t stress this enough) are very large.
What was most striking about these sculptures were the poems that accompanied them. My favorite pairing was (unsurprisingly) a poem and sculpture titled “Ballerina.” Honestly, it made me teary and nostalgic, thinking about the choices I have made in my life that let me to that very moment.
At the end of my walk around the sculpure park, I chatted with the artist for a bit. He showed me one of the large metal panels he used to build the horse and I bought a couple postcards before getting back on the road.
I did not expect to be so moved by the prairie and the people I encountered there (from a safe distance). I drove off thinking to myself, “Now this is why I travel.” I travel to be surprised, to see for myself what a place and its people are like. This is why the journey is the destination.
The state continued to surprise and move me and I can’t wait to visit again soon.
