The Stunning Landscape In South Dakota That Appears As Though It Was Ripped From A Van Gogh Painting
By Tori Jane|Published November 14, 2023
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Tori Jane
Author
Tori Jane is a storm chaser, writer, photographer, and the village idiot - in that order. When she's not out and about dancing with the meanest storms on planet Earth for funsies she can be found wandering, shooting landscapes, writing, editing photos, and otherwise up to no good. Legend has it that she can also be occasionally spotted typing up short bios in the third person, but those rumors are unsubstantiated.
Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter who lived a troubled life until he took it in 1890, having created more than 900 paintings. Interestingly, a majority of these works were painted in the final two years of his existence, and many of them feature splendiferous arrangements of flowers – both wild and in-vase – that would make any viewer’s jaw drop. It’s fun to say, then, that there are numerous incredible landscapes all over the state that look like something van Gogh would have painted in his day, and I’m not wrong; one of his favorite subjects was the sunflower, and as luck would have it, South Dakota’s got plenty. Come out and see some of the most beautiful places in South Dakota… many of which have plenty of sunflowers to brighten your day, should you arrive in late summer.
When I say that South Dakota has a lot of sunflowers... I mean South Dakota has a lot of sunflowers.
Second only to our sister state of North Dakota, who produced over 1.3 million pounds of sunflowers in 2022, South Dakota produced an amazing 1.08 million pounds of the beautiful bloom in the same year.
It's a myth that they "follow" the sun, though there is some credence to the thought that juvenile flowers just might.
You can find amazing fields filled with flowers in lots of places all over South Dakota, but there are a couple of spots you can meander to for the best possible show.
Drive the I-90 in July and August, and prepare to be amazed.
Highway 34, west of Pierre, is also an excellent go-to option for peak flower season that the locals love.
Finally (but not really... like I said, there are lots of these fields all over the place), you'll want to check out the fields on Highway 14 from Hayes to Wall.
...and if you find yourself in Wall, South Dakota, you know you gotta stop at the world-famous Wall Drug. It's a must-do for every local and every visitor. Hey, I don't make the rules.
But I digress: There is nothing in this world more spellbinding than a field of endless sunflowers.
Vincent van Gogh himself might have even wept at the beauty of it all... perhaps it could have even calmed his stormy soul, at least for a little while.
If you find you can’t get enough of our amazing flower fields, you might want to explore the largest tulip field in South Dakota when the time comes, too. Need to know what to bring while making a road trip out of these blooms? No worries – our epic road trip packing list has got you covered. Never forget anything again!
What places in South Dakota feel like something out of a painting to you? Let me know.
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