Written by Kim
Well…..last night I said we were going to take a drive and rest day but we decided to change that based on input from a friend (thanks Bob!) encouraging us to check out Badlands. We drove west about 4 hours from Sioux Falls. The drive was mostly prairie until we crossed the Missouri River then it got pretty hilly.
We packed a picnic lunch so stopped at a rest area to enjoy it but it was quite windy. There was a crazy bad thunderstorm after we finished lunch so we pulled over to let it pass and luckily it stopped before we got to the park.
Badlands National Park is southwestern South Dakota. The park protects 242,756 acres (379.3 sq miles) of sharply eroded buttes and pinnacles along with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the US. The National Patk Service managed the park so our annual pass covered admission. The south unit of the park is co-managed with the Oglala Lakota tribe. This park was almost indescribable! We bought an app called “Action Tour Guide” which provides self-guided driving tours to explore Badlands.
I’m just going to post some pics that don’t even do it justice. It’s just amazing. Clay eroded buttes everywhere your eye can see! We did several of the trails and overlooks to enjoy the beauty.
After we left Badlands we continued up Interstate 90 and stopped at Wall Drugs. I would characterize Wall Drug like a Western South of the border. There are signs advertising it for hundreds of miles and it is a huge souvenir tourist trap but at least we can say we’ve been there.
Ok your trivia for the day – are bison and Buffalo the same animal (ps this is a bison at Wall Drug because we didn’t see any at Badlands). Burly, shaggy bison (Bison bison), the North American hoofed mammals that, for many people, embody the American West, are often referred to as buffalo. But even though they are in the same family group as Old World Buffalo species — the Asian water buffalo and the African cape buffalo — bison are not closely related to those species, making the common name “buffalo” misleading. The settlers referred to the large beasts as “bison” and “buffalo” interchangeably, and the name “buffalo,” though scientifically inaccurate, stuck. In North America we have bison NOT buffalo.
We stopped for dinner at Sturgis Brewery. No food pictures because we had too many other pics today
We are staying in Deadwood for tonight and tomorrow. We are in an older Travelodge on the outskirts of town because there is a huge music festival here this weekend and hotel prices were insane and sold out in many hotels. The hotel is clean but very old! Tomorrow we head to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Custer Park and Needle Highway. Stay tuned for more……
