Trish & Anne RV Adventures

We were driving to the Badlands on Friday August 25 after our South Dakota golf.

It was almost three hours of driving through fields – and then we started to see scenery like the above – we were getting close.

We got checked into our campground, which was about 20 minutes outside the Badlands National Park. We were not renting a car here, so after finding our campsite we had enough time to get to the visitor center, buy our magnet and get a map of the area.

We learned that the area was under water about 75 million years ago, and when the Rocky Mountains formed, this area also rose, and then began eroding away, forming the incredible landscape we see today.

This post will be lots of photos with not much commentary, as mostly we were saying “It’s just …” Those …’s were sometimes ‘incredible’, sometimes ‘beautiful’, sometimes ‘unbelievable’ and sometimes ‘not like anything we see back home.’ And as usual with this type of scenery, photos won’t really do the place justice.

Our first stop was at the Door trail, where we walked the short boardwalk and got our first close up views of the incredible landscape. We also spotted a rock wren.

We also spotted this hare and this very weird formation that looked like paper rolling up, but was actually rock.

And we got a selfie.

Then we drove through the park exclaiming over the scenery, some of which is above.

We ended up at the Fossil Trail – it was again a boardwalk with placards talking about the kinds of fossils that have been found there. They also clearly stated that if you find any, leave them be and report them to a ranger. We didn’t really look for any.

Then we drove back to our first stop to watch the sunset, spotting this mule deer along the way.

This big horn sheep was on the edge of the parking lot when we got back – it was just grazing and ignoring all of the photographers getting pictures – the upper left photo shows how close she got to our RV.

Then it was time to watch the sunset.

Driving back to the campsite, with the angles, we were able to catch a few more glimpses of the sun setting. It was too late to cook when we got back to camp, but they were making hamburgers on the grill, so we had an easy dinner.

Driving into the park on Saturday, 8/26, we saw this heard of cows, and these mule deer ran across the road right in front of us – I was amazed I caught them with the camera.

We spent the better part of the day driving the road through the park, stopping at most of the scenic overviews and taking some short walks on some of the trails. Here are more pictures that can’t do it justice.

A couple of the photos above might help you understand why thee early settlers called this place wall. You are going across the plains, and there is this wall that you either need to get up, or get down. Can you imagine doing it with horses and wagons? I can’t.

As I look at these again, they definitely don’t do the place justice.

A couple more selfies

Western Meadowlark that we spotted on one of our short walks.

It was 4.5 miles out a dirt road to get to the big Prairie Dog Town. The road was a little rougher than we anticipated, so 10 mph was our top speed – the nine miles there and back took us about an hour and a quarter, with time to watch the prairie dogs.

These guys are cute, but the commentary that we were listening said they carry fleas that carry the bubonic plague – we kept our distance using the binoculars and telephoto lens for the close-ups.

The guys on the right seemed pretty alert, and then I looked a bit further out and noticed the coyote walking through the town.

He worked his way across the field, and then stood and stared at one mound for over 10 minutes. We could never be nature photographers because we got tired of waiting before he did.

We also saw bison in the park – not too many, but they were there.

Bison and mule deer.

At this stop there were two other RV’s like us – we are the 2nd from the right.

After we left the park at the northwest end, we went to the town of Wall – famous for Wall Drug. It’s a major entertainment/shopping location now. It became famous for serving free ice water to get folks to come into town from the highway.

A few shots of the store, and me with one of the cowboys sitting on a bench. And another of their advertising gimmicks. We only stayed long enough for ice cream.

Then it was back to the our campground via I90 East, where unlike in MA they hay in the median strip. And those are the backs of all the Wall Drug signs.

I caught this sunset from the campground, and that’s Trish using the bug zapper to get the little bugs that always seem to get in even with the screens.

Leaving the park the next day, we got a final glimpse of the badlands, and this herd of horses.

Next up, Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park.

Til then, safe travels.