Wall Drug and Badlands

On Wednesday, September 15, Camden and I got on a plane and flew to South Dakota!!  We flew into Rapid City and drove to Wall to spend the night.  Our goal was to go to Wall Drug in the morning.  Wall Drug is a tourist destination that became that way when the owners started advertising free water on numerous signs on the highway.  It was a cool store with that had a cafe where we were able to eat breakfast.  Good thing too, because there was not much in Wall!

We found Mater in Wall, SD

Pancakes are always a good way to start a day!

Dave would like working in a pharmacy with stuffed bison!

We tried the free water....Camden liked it, but I thought it tasted bad.  Too many minerals or something 

There were lots of photo ops in the backyard of Wall Drug

We were able to buy lunch supplies in Wall and then head to the Badlands.  We did make one stop though at the Minutemen Missile National Historic sight.  During the cold war, Minutemen Missiles were stored underground around South Dakota.  The US destroyed many of them after a peace treaty with Russia, but not all.  So not sure if some are still in SD or in other places.  Lots of information at that place, so kind of didn't get it all.    

We were ready to start our drive through the Badlands, but we had to make one more stop at a prairie ranch.  It was fun to feed the prairie dogs.  The prairie dogs were fat and happy!

That was the last stop before our many stops in the Badlands.  There were lots of overlooks for us to take advantage of!  The Lakota and French fur traders named the area the Badlands because it was difficult to traverse with the lack of water and rocky terrain.  And the Lakota Indians also called them White Hills, as opposed to the Black Hills where Mt Rushmore is located.  

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I would not have wanted to travel over this land before they had a paved road!

We took three short hikes, the first of which had us climbing a ladder and crawling over rocks.  The hike with the ladder was the Notch Trail.    

Camden loves to climb rocks!

Our first big horned sheep sighting

Another big horned sheep sighting

One area had different colors on the rocks

A close up of a big horned sheep on the side of the road

After seeing more big horned sheep, and also seeing some prairie dogs and bison, we left the White Hills to head to the Black Hills.  But that is for another post!