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Isaac-1 · 07-12-2021, 12:45 PM

We are considering taking a trip in late September, and are trying to pick a destination, some of the options under consideration are the Badlands region of South Dakota, southern Colorado, or perhaps parts of New Mexico. All of which would involve travel through and around various tribal lands. Hence my question, as the last I saw there were still many closures on and around tribal lands as of a month or so ago. Our other alternative is perhaps Arkansas, Missouri, etc. where there much fewer tribal land concerns.

twogypsies · 07-12-2021, 03:26 PM

Monument Valley and Four Corners area are open along with many other places. Badlands is surely open as it's a national park. Custer State Park is open, Mount Rushmore is open, etc. Just Google places you want to see for updates. I haven't heard of new restriction on just driving through tribal lands. Even the east entrance to Grand Canyon is now open and that's Navajo land.

Here's some info:

https://www.utahscanyoncountry.com/covid19-travel

It's not that they have a lot of Covid cases; it's that they don't have the hospital facilities other places have so they don't want to get overwhelmed with cases/deaths passed on by outsiders. I think road restrictions have let up a lot.

wolfe10 · 07-12-2021, 03:28 PM

Main roads in New Mexico are open, but access to Pueblos is restricted.

This NM site has the latest: https://nmroads.com/mapIndex.html?#

Isaac-1 · 07-12-2021, 03:50 PM

Thanks, I just wanted to ask here to get a broad overview as we don't have a specific route / destination planned yet.

DonavonP · 07-13-2021, 06:03 PM

South Dakota has a new highway website https://www.sd511.org/

Click on the red/orange triangle with the exclamation point. It'll say "Civil Emergency". Probably a good idea to avoid that area.

UTTransplant · 07-21-2021, 08:04 AM

We were in the Badlands in SD less than a week ago. Native lands had people taking name and license plate info before entering (contact tracing). The ranger station in the reservation was closed. We should have looked to check since we wanted to see the museum attached to the ranger station. Masks were required when out of the car. A month before the Acoma pueblo was still closed to outsiders. I think it will be a while before natives are willing to open up.