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JOE ELBERSON
Sunflower Sojourn
Each summer, South Dakota’s prairies erupt in happy faces as sunflower fields stretch to the horizon. Follow the sunshine from roadside blooms to charming festivals, celebrating the cheery, oversized blooms that are sure to bring a smile to your face.
By Maria Lenhart
A golden-yellow spectacle reminiscent of a Van Gogh masterpiece happens every summer in central South Dakota. In late July through August, fields of sunflowers, some seeming to stretch endlessly toward the horizon, come into their full glory, forming a brilliant backdrop for a road trip through the heart of the state.
Sunflower field in South Dakota
ADOBE STOCK
While the exact locations of the sunflower fields change from year to year, because of weather fluctuations and the need for crop rotation, it’s a safe bet that travelers will get an eyeful of the blooms by making the capital city of Pierre the starting point. From here, a popular option is the 118-mile drive west along Highway 14 to Wall, site of “The World’s Largest Drugstore” and a gateway to Badlands National Park. Other prime routes for sunflower spotting are found by heading east on Highway 14 toward Highmore or north on Highway 83 through the farm country around Gettysburg and Hoven.
Venturing down a rural byway off these highways is almost certain to bring a serendipitous encounter with a massive field of bright sunflowers bobbing in the breeze. Most farmers do not mind if visitors stop and photograph their dazzling fields, as long as they are respectful.
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Plenty of blooms are certain to be on display in Highmore at the annual Sunflower Festival, scheduled for Aug.16, 2025. The festival, hosted by the Highmore Area Council of the Arts and the Highmore Civic and Commerce, brings opportunities to enjoy guided and self-guided tours of sunflower fields as well as hayrides, live music, specialty foods and handcrafted items from local artisans.
Sunflowers, as photogenic as they are, are just one of many things to enjoy in this region, which also yields a bumper crop of historical, cultural and scenic sights.
Cathedral of the Prairie in Hoven, South Dakota
TRAVEL SOUTH DAKOTA/CHAD COPPESS
Among them is the Dakota Sunset Museum in Gettysburg, a history museum best known for the 40-ton Medicine Rock, a 350- to 400-million-year-old boulder sacred to the Lakota people and embedded with mysterious footprints. There’s also an early-1900s barbershop, country schoolhouse, blacksmith shop and other exhibits. In nearby Hoven, St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, also known as the Cathedral of the Prairie, is an ornate marvel of Romanesque-style arches and Gothic detail incongruously set in a small farming town.
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The interior of the South Dakota State Capitol
TRAVEL SOUTH DAKOTA
Pierre to Badlands
Pierre (pronounced “peer”) has a surprising amount to see and do for such a small city—with just 14,000 people, it’s the second-smallest state capital in the United States. Built of marble and native fieldstone and set among trees and gardens, the lovely neoclassical South Dakota State Capitol is well worth a visit, especially if followed by a stroll around the adjacent lake lined with memorials honoring veterans of World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam wars.
Exhibits inside South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center
For families, the South Dakota Discovery Center provides great fun with interactive science exhibits, including one where visitors can try their hand at designing a spacecraft.
Scheduled to emerge from an extensive renovation in 2026, the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center is the place to learn about the state’s history, from its Native American origins, through pioneer times and to the present day.
Scenic drive along the Missouri River
Pierre also has plenty of options for enjoying the outdoors, including at two state-managed parks near the Missouri River. LaFramboise Island Nature Area draws hikers, birders, mountain bikers and photographers to its wooded trails with stunning views of the river and city, while Farm Island Recreation Area is the place to find swimming beaches, campsites and spots to cast a fishing line.
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Casey Tibbs South Dakota Rodeo Center
Just across the river, sister city Fort Pierre, a stopping point on the Lewis & Clark Expedition in 1804, is rich in local history and lore. Early artifacts and documents are on display at the Verendrye Museum, named for French brothers Louis and Chevalier Verendrye, who explored the upper reaches of the Missouri River in the 1740s. More recent history honors Fort Pierre’s most famous resident, top rodeo star Casey Tibbs, known for his purple shirts and chaps and bronco-busting prowess. His career is celebrated at the blufftop Casey Tibbs South Dakota Rodeo Center, which also offers spectacular views of the surrounding landscape.
Sunflower fields of South Dakota
Heading farther west on Highway 14, there are not only sunflower fields to be on the lookout for, but also possible stops in Midland for a soak in the mineral baths at the historic Stroppel Hotel, in Quinn for stargazing at the Badlands Observatory or in Cottonwood to photograph a ruined church, jail and other weather-beaten remains of a pioneer ghost town.
Wall Drug’s cafe is a popular stop for travelers.
Just up ahead is the little burg of Wall, chiefly known for its mammoth 76,000-square-foot drugstore. Far more than a place to buy aspirin, Wall Drug is a famous roadside family attraction where visitors can peruse historic photographs and a celebrated Western art collection, sip a 5-cent cup of coffee, enjoy hot beef sandwiches and buffalo burgers, shop for Native American jewelry and South Dakota-made products, try their hand at gem panning, and marvel at a giant, roaring T-Rex.
Taking in the view of Badlands National Park
Wall is also where Highway 14 connects with Interstate 90 and Badlands National Park, a spectacular culmination for the journey. Often likened to a landscape out of a science fiction novel, the 244,000-acre park is an otherworldly place of isolated buttes, deep canyons, native grasslands and towering spires that take on a rose-colored glow at sunset and dawn. To get an overview of this splendor, take the Badlands Loop, a 39-mile drive on a paved road through the park with 16 designated scenic overlooks along the way.
Wild sunflowers growing in Badlands National Park
Keep an eye out for the abundant wildlife along the loop, including the endangered black-footed ferret, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, prairie dogs and buffalo. Hiking trails are available for a variety of skill levels, including the Fossil Exhibit Trail, an accessible boardwalk with panels interpreting the prehistoric creatures that once roamed the park.
A Versatile Seed
Why are sunflowers and the seeds they yield so abundant in South Dakota? After all, it’s Kansas that is officially called the Sunflower State. Despite the nomenclature, it is South Dakota and neighboring North Dakota that are by far the champion sunflower producers, jointly responsible for more than 80% of the entire domestic crop, according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. All in all, there are well over 2 billion tons of sunflower seeds produced in the country annually, with Texas, Minnesota and Kansas among the next largest sources.
No matter where grown, the sunflower plant is native to North America and is believed to have been domesticated by Native Americans around 3,000 B.C. in what is now New Mexico and Arizona. The seeds from the plants are harvested once the blooms have died back completely. The seeds’ many uses include cooking oil, cosmetics, confectionary products, feed for livestock and birdseed.
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