29th Stop - Palisades State Park (SD)

Blog Post #38 - Written October 30, 2025

Stay: July 17-18, 2025


From Minneapolis, we drove all the way across the state of Minnesota, to Palisades State Park just across the South Dakota border above Sioux Falls. One of the nice things about this park is its size. It's a small little park, so we could camp within the park and then just walk around and see everything without having to drive an hour (like many huge national parks). 

After we arrived and set up our trailer, the boys and I broke out our frisbees and played around in the big grassy field. It was nice to toss the frisbee around and enjoy a simple, relaxing evening with the kiddos. Sometimes it feels like we're always "go go go!" to see everything we want to see  :)

The next morning, we had heard and read that we could put-in our kayaks a little down river. So we took our inflatable kayaks down to the river, only to find that the water was definitely not kayak-friendly haha! I don't know if the water level was just several feet lower than normal or what, but it was pretty shallow and rocky in several sections. So we decided to just hike down along the river instead. It was a really fun, pretty walk with several rock climbing/bouldering parts the kids thoroughly enjoyed :)   And I brought our little drone and successfully [mostly] flew it out over the river and back without losing it off the cliff into the water haha! It was extremely close though, it crash landed in a bush/tree hanging out over the edge haha, but I was able to reach it safely. Here's the really terrible drone video that captures the entire gripping sequence...and not much else ha! You get what you pay for, and I only paid like $50 for the drone, so...

Not ideal kayaking waters                                           But a pretty scenic walk

The kids have really started to enjoy rock climbing.           "And that's why they call him Cliffhanger...!" - name that 90s TV show.  Can't. Hold. On. Much. LOOONGER!


The Balancing Rock is probably the coolest part of this little river-front hike. Some really pretty views up there. And only a little terrifying with 3 young, fearless children haha.  And we saw something very strange down in the water. It took us a while to realize that they were probably carp with huge 'ole gaping mouths coming up to eat the foam or bugs or something. 




After this little hike, we took the kayaks upriver a ways to see if we could find a better place to paddle around. We crossed the 1908 Palisades Iron Bridge (now closed to vehicular traffic, but still open to pedestrians) and walked down around to the other side of the river. I got a kayak pumped up and convinced Z to join me on a scouting expedition. We paddled up river under the bridge and then back down river until we got to a shallow rocky section. I got out and walked while maneuvering Z and the kayak through/over all the rocks. Not exactly a relaxing float downstream, but we eventually made it. 







We had fun paddling around while Megan and Q tried to fish and D took a good nap on shore. Overall it was a fun little state park!




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