Sioux Falls, SD and the Corn Palace

The first stop on our northwest road trip was Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We had seen Sioux Falls on a few other travel blogs and, combined with the fact that we discovered the existence of a place called the Corn Palace, we decided to start here.

Sioux Falls is actually the largest city in South Dakota with a population of around 196,000. For reference, Atlanta has a population of 525,000.

We arrived in Sioux Falls around 10:30 AM and walked across the largely desolate airport to our hotel, the Aerostay Hotel, which connected directly to the airport. It was too early to check in, but we were able to leave our bags so we could venture around town. This hotel was surprisingly quiet for an airport hotel. It is a very small airport that doesn’t have overnight flights so that also really helped. We could see the tarmac from our room window so we watched a flew planes come and go during our stay. Overall, the hotel staff was very friendly and helpful and our rooms were clean and comfy.

After leaving our bags, we then spent an ungodly amount of time trying to get an Uber/Lyft to take us downtown. Note: It is very difficult to find ride shares in this area because there are so few. It can take up to an hour or more so plan accordingly. We literally had the same driver twice in two days, which has never happened to us before. Luckily, we were able to pick up our rental car on the morning of day 2.

Car Rental: Enterprise 1901 W 12th St, Sioux Falls

When we went on our road trip, it was during a car rental crisis. As we said in the previous blog, at one point, the cheapest we could find a car was for $8,000. We spent an afternoon between us and our friend Kayla trying to find a cheaper car somewhere. We finally remembered that a blog had said it was almost always cheaper to rent away from the airport if you can, so that is what we did. This Enterprise is not very far from the airport and the car was immensely cheaper. Half of our car expense was due to the drop fee of picking it up one place and leaving it another, so make sure to allow room in your budget because it still was not cheap.

We spent the day in Sioux Falls, exploring the downtown area.

What to See And Do

After lunch our first day, we set out walking to Falls Park, which ended up taking us an unnecessarily long amount of time because we took off walking on the Greenway Trail bike path in the wrong direction for about 30 minutes. 

The Greenway Trail makes a loop around Sioux Falls and is great if you like to bike. We were two of very few people walking on the path and had to step off onto the grass several times to avoid being hit by riders. There is some really pretty scenery along the path so it is definitely worth checking out. Just make sure you’re not walking in the wrong direction. *insert sighing emoji here*

When we finally got to Falls Park, we spent a while here admiring the waterfalls and then sitting in the shade of the rocks because it was super hot and sunny that day. There also happened to be military planes doing test flights overhead (there is a military base nearby) so that was neat to watch. The falls run over pink quartzite, making it a cool geological feature. Sadly, there were areas where people had left trash near the water and the water wasn’t at all clear.

We also had an odd experience at the park when a random man in sweatpants asked if onlookers wanted to hold his giant snake. No thanks, bro.

After we’d had our fill of the falls, we decided to explore the rest of the downtown area. We took a stroll along the SculptureWalk, the largest public sculpture exhibit in the world. We saw a lot of amazing sculptures by many talented artists.

Where to Eat/Drink

Our first stop was the Starbucks, which ordinarily wouldn’t be very interesting but in this case it was. I, Courtney, had my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack on and one of my Marriott Carpet masks. One of the baristas stepped out behind us when we arrived and said “hey, I like your backpack.” I turned around to thank her and she said “oh my gosh! Is that the Marriott Carpet?!” So yeah, 1,150 miles away and we found a fellow DragonCon-ner.

Severance Brewing is, as you may have guessed, a brewery. We stopped in here after our visit to Falls Park (it is nearby). We had a lot of great sours when we were there and thoroughly enjoyed our tastings. If they still have them on the menu, try the the Apple Farm Cider and the Barrel Aged Ambidextrous Hitchhiker. The Summer Herbification Project #5 is also very good if you are a fan of ginger.

Fancy Bowl had a Moe’s type set up (or Chipotle if you’re fancy and/or not from the South) but with Poké/Asian options. We both had a Poké bowl and it was delish.

Blarney Stone was a fairly typical pub but it had specials each day. It was half off wine night when we went (woohoo!) and they made an excellent roast beef dip sandwich that had a garlic aioli, melted Swiss cheese, and a rosemary onion brown gravy.

CH Patisserie had all sorts of sweets, but we got the macarons and they were excellent. Our faves were the Puppy Chow and the Salted Caramel.

Since we were headed West to Rapid City, we knew we had to visit the world’s only Corn Palace on the way. Found in Mitchell, SD, this unique place is redecorated each and every year, using over 275,000 ears of corn. Take a tour around the upstairs of the venue to learn more about the 100 year old building that is also used for basketball games and concerts. And don’t forget to stop in for corny gift at the gift shop. It is a-maize-ing!

Before you leave the Corn Palace, walk down the block to Elixer Coffee to grab a tasty lunch. The grilled cheese with pesto is very good.

For a full itinerary of our road trip, check out our blog The Ultimate Mid/Northwest Road Trip Through SD, WY, MT. And stay tuned for more blogs on each place we visited. See ya next time!