Day 3--South Dakota and the Badlands

Here are Barb, D.D, and Sub at the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Our drive today was 373 miles for a trip total of 1233 miles. We spent about 4 hours stopping at various places in the Badlands for pictures, short walks, and to let the kids do a little climbing on small mounds. The temperature rose to 104-degrees outside...the guide books warned of the high heat produced in such a barren area in the hight of summer. Wish I could put into words how amazing and beautiful the badlands are. They got their name from the French explorers who called this area "bad land to cross" and the Dakota Indians who also called this "bad land". It is breathtaking to be driving through ENDLESS rolling brown prairie land and then this place just opens up before you to one side of the highway. There is high prairie land and low prairie land and walls of rock separate the two (the high prairie land starts at the top edge of the rocks and the low prairie is in a vast valley). The drive through the park winds up and down so that you get views of everything from both the top and the bottom of the rocks. The rocks are all striped with red lines, white lines, gray lines, and, in places, bright yellow. We joked that in some areas (like the one behind the kids) the lines and the vastness of the scenery almost look like a computer printed picture where the cartridge is running out of ink and leaving lines across the picture. I know that is hard to picture, but if you saw it, you would know exactly what I mean. Anyway, after the badlands, we drove to Wall Drug Store. There are at least 73 signs advertising Wall Drugs along the road once you enter South Dakota. It is very famous for having "Free Ice Cold Water"--which was its big draw back in the 1930's when people were traveling for days through the dusty prairie. So we had several cups of ice cold water. It has lots of different stores within the one. Sullivan even panned for gold in one part and got a few gold flakes. We shopped and ate dinner there. Then headed out for tonight's destination in Rapid City, South Dakota. The parking lot has whole sections blocked off for the Sturgis bikers to park and almost everyone here is a biker. We are definately the minority in our minivan and three kids in tow. Tomorrow we go to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Jewel Cave then head into Wyoming before stopping for the night.